Comfort
by You'reMyKindOfTrouble
Summary: Response to a prompt on Tumblr... "It's not meant to bend like that." After Carol and Tyreese liberate the group from Terminus, she realises that Daryl is no longer with them. She heads back to find him, but he's injured. Some pre-fluff, Caryl snuggles, and Carol gives Rick a piece of her mind. Now a multi-chap! Reviews addressed at the end of each chapter.
1. Chapter 1

**Just a quick prompt response I whipped up in about 15 minutes after seeing 'It's not meant to bend like that.' on someones Tumblr... I can't remember who it was, though! So if it was you, massive props for coming up with it, all the credit goes to you...**

* * *

><p>"Where's Daryl?" Carol gasped, hunched over with her hands braced on her knees. "Glenn? Rick? Oh, shit, where did he go?" Her legs wobbled with exertion and her vision swam.<p>

"I don't-" Glenn gagged on his weak breath. "He was there at the gates! Gone after that."

"We have to… We have to go back!" She looked around at the bedraggled group of Terminus escapees. "We have to find him, _we have to_! Please…" She begged as everybody stood around, desperately trying to catch their breath.

"Carol," Rick said apologetically. "We can't go back, we can't risk anybody."

"Oh, fuck up, Rick." She snapped. Rick gaped at her. "He would do anything for you and you'd just leave him there? Like you left me, huh? Like you left Carl to look after Judith after he shot his own mother? Just piss off because you're looking out for yourself, again?"

"We'll talk about this later." He tried to shut her down.

"We will." She glowered, and stalked off back towards the burning community.

Glenn staggered after her, hoicking up a glob of phlegm as he left. Maggie and Michonne followed, before Carl, Bob, and Abraham followed, Carl glancing back over his shoulder at his father with an inscrutable expression.

Tyreese jogged a fussy Judith in his arms. "C'mon, we'll find somewhere to hole up until they find him." He prompted the remaining people. They followed him in the direction they had, until very recently, been running at full speed.

* * *

><p>"We'll find him." Carl squeezed her arm unexpectedly. "He was right behind us, I promise."<p>

"I know he was." She replied. Her voice was hard and trembling with suppressed fear.

"_Carol!_" Maggie hissed. "D'you hear that?"

They paused for a beat until they all clearly heard the snapping of branches and muffled curses headed towards them. Abraham hefted his crowbar and stepped in front of them, ready to defend them.

"You better show me who you are pretty damn smartly, son." He drawled.

"Came back for me then?" Daryl quipped as he staggered around a tree.

"Oh my god!" Carol choked and stumbled for him. "Daryl, I thought they'd gotten you…" She flung her arms around him and pressed her forehead to his chest. He hissed in pain and arched away from her enough to pull his arm from between them.

"M'fine. You alright?"

She pulled away, sniffling and wiping her face of tears and snot. He snickered and offered her his red rag. She gave a watery laugh and blew her nose. "Just fine." She whispered.

The way he cradled one arm against his midriff caught her attention.

"You're hurt?"

"Think it's broken." He held it up for her to see. It was most definitely broken about halfway up his forearm. It had a defined break, and the broken part hung at an angle towards the ground. The fingertips on that hand were bright white under the grime and walker muck and flopped limply. "_Mother fuck!_" He snarled as the bone shifted from its delicate balance and his hand drooped even more.

Bob stepped forward. "I can't do anything until we find somewhere to settle down for tonight, but it looks pretty clean from here. Can you hold on 'til then?"

Daryl swayed slightly from the pain. "Gonna have to. It ain't meant to bend like that, huh." He sagged towards Carol, and Glenn leaped forward to help her manage his dead weight as he passed out from exhaustion and pain.

Carol got under one of his arms, Glenn took the other side, and they hauled him back in the direction they'd come.

* * *

><p>By the time Daryl came around, Bob had set his arm and bound it as best he could with some physiotherapist tape and crude splints made from the bamboo stakes found in the garden of the house they were staying in overnight.<p>

"Ccc…?" He slurred. "M'arm's hurts…"

Tara, who had been keeping watch over him, headed out into the hall and beckoned to Carol, who was pacing with Judith in her arms.

She passed Judith off on the way into the room and sat on the edge of the bed. She reached to brush his hair off his face and his eyes fluttered. He mumbled her name and she hummed at him. He turned his cheek against her fingers and let her stroke his face.

"Arm's fuckin' killin' me." He sighed as she began finger-combing his hair.

"I'll get you some painkillers once Bob comes back, okay, pookie?" She soothed.

"Could kiss it better." He suggested. He was falling asleep again and half delirious with pain, and as a result had lost his brain-to-mouth filter. She laughed softly. "Didn't think y'were alive." He said, shifting a little and opening his eyes. "Then you come burstin' in like some warrior queen all covered in clay and shootin' the fuck outta e'rybody… Felt like a real dumbass even thinkin' it, after that."

"I'm okay." She said.

"You're fuckin' indestructible is what'cha are…" He agreed.

She ceased her absentminded petting of his hair and face and made to get up. "I'll get you some water and pain stuff, okay?"

"Come back soon." He said, and shut his eyes again.

* * *

><p>He was wide awake when she came back. His eyes were fixed on the ceiling and he was ashen-skinned.<p>

"Daryl? Is your arm hurting?"

He made a noise of dissent. "Y'know what they were doing in there?"

"Terminus?" She asked, setting the glass of water and pill on the bedside table.

"Cannibals." He managed.

She became worried all of a sudden, that maybe the events at Terminus had finally done him in. After everything he had been through and kept going, what he had seen during the Governor's attack, losing Beth, and witnessing the horrors of the false sanctuary may have broken him. She pressed her palm to his forehead, looked into his eyes.

"You know where we are, right, Daryl?" She checked, looking for symptoms of shock.

"Ain't in shock. Just… Kinda fucks you up, y'know?"

"Of course it does," She soothed as she rearranged his pillow and smoothed his blankets. She had felt the chill in the air outside and knew it would get cold soon. "But you'll be fine. That was an isolated group of people, Daryl. Not everything is like that."

He made a noise in his throat. "You gonna sleep any time soon?" He asked as she yawned.

"I'm not sure." She admitted. "I don't like my chances."

"You could sleep here." He said, trying to be nonchalant. "If y'wanted to, I mean." He fidgeted with the blanket with his good hand. After a couple of beats, he dared to glance up at her face. She placed her hand on his stomach.

"I'm not going to hurt your arm?" She asked.

He reached for and downed the pain pill. "Remember bein' on the road before we found the farm?"

She laughed quietly. "And Glenn somehow ended up spooning you?"

He snorted. "Ain't nothing gonna hurt me worse than Glenn fuckin' drooling on me… An' I'd probably sleep better with you here. C'mon." He flipped the covers back.

She kicked off her boots before she turned off the lantern and slipped under the blankets. The sheets were clean and she was infinitely glad they'd managed to give everybody, unconscious Daryl included, a scrub down with no-rinse body wash they'd found in a camping kit in the house. There had also been some spare clothes in the drawers, so everybody was slightly cleaner than usual.

The body heat in the blankets wrapped around her and she all but melted into a puddle on the mattress. She draped her arm over his waist and he shifted so he could wrap his good arm around her.

"This okay?" She murmured into the darkness.

"S'okay." He confirmed.

"I'm glad you're okay."

"I'm glad we decided to share those nine lives." He teased groggily.

He kissed the top of her head and let her snuggle closer, and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Liked it? Leave a review and tell me!<strong>

**A huge, huge thank you to everybody who has followed or favourited either me or individual stories... I would love to take the time to respond to each and every one of you but my internet connection is too slow for gmail so... Thanks anyway, and it makes me happy to see that people like my stuff!**


	2. Chapter 2

**So, a couple of reviewers said it could be a multi-chapter story, and I thought 'Why the heck not?' As far as I've thought (not far, heh), I'm planning it to span just over a year, by which point it should align with the earliest chronological one-shot from my 'The Farm' arc. Hopefully I'll get out a chapter a week, but that may be pushed out to one every ten days once term starts again. Enjoy! (Reviews are addressed and replied to at the end.)**

* * *

><p>Carol woke up in the middle of the night to Daryl's panicky gasps.<p>

"Daryl?" She was instantly awake, her hands flying to his good arm and rubbing soothingly. "It's okay, it's okay…" She hushed him. She reached up to stroke his face gently, and he stilled without waking.

She propped herself on her elbow and watched him for a moment. His eyes were tightly shut, brows drawn together. He tossed a little and ground his teeth with anxiety. She reached to smooth his forehead free of his frown, and his eyes snapped open in the half-light provided by the unusually bright moon. He lay completely frozen, gasping, staring with glassy eyes up at the ceiling.

She waited for him to come out of the in-between sleep stage, but he lay stock still until she rubbed her fingertips across the furrows on his brow.

"Shit!" He exploded, flailing violently. His closed fist thumped her upper arm and she sucked in a pained breath, but didn't move away.

"Daryl?" She tried again. "You're okay…"

"Carol?" He croaked, sitting up with his broken arm strapped to his chest. "Oh fuck, are y'okay?"

"I'm fine," She rubbed his shoulder calmingly. "Are you?"

He didn't look fine. His eyes were still a little wild, and his chest was heaving as he reacquainted himself with the room they'd taken last night. He shrugged unevenly and shook his head. "Beth got taken." He said. "It was just me an' her an' then I lost her."

"I don't understand." Carol shifted closer and tucked against his side. She lay her head on his shoulder and rubbed his arm reassuringly. "Lost her?"

"Walkers came bustin' in, I sent her runnin' out the other side'a the house. Got out there and there was this car takin' off… Followed it all night, lost it at an intersection. I just sorta… I just sat down and _stopped_."

"Oh, sweetheart." She sighed.

"I lost her." He mumbled dejectedly. "Can't even tell Maggie what really happened. Just said 'she's gone' an' she probably thinks her lil' sister's dead 'cause a me."

"If she's alive, we'll find her. You know that, right?"

"All sorts'a shit can happen to someone alive out here…" He croaked. "Gives me nightmares. Thinkin'a what could be happenin' to her… Wonderin' if she might be better off dead, even if means she's walkin' round out there." His voice trembled. "She's just a fuckin' kid." He swallowed thickly.

She pressed up closer to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He wrapped his good arm around her waist and pulled her tightly to him. He buried his face in her hair and moaned with grief.

"I pretty much killed her." He whispered.

"You saved her for so long," She shook him gently. "Don't you ever, _ever_, think anything that happens is on you. We've all done horrible things and made hard decisions, and even though it hurts you have to carry on, okay? Don't dwell."

He looked at her and she felt her heart break at the agony in his eyes. "I didn't find her." He searched her face, looking for judgment or scorn. As always, she was just looking back at him, all soft and sweet and worried for him.

"You will." She cupped his cheek. He lay back down, hissing at the pain in his arm but unwilling to relinquish the comfort of her warm body against his.

She shifted until she was curled tightly against him, holding him.

They both lay awake in the darkness, unable to sleep, but finding some respite in each others presence.

* * *

><p>They walked for almost a whole day, a motley, limping group wearily batting aside walkers and dragging their feet through the leaf litter. Maggie, Glenn, Sasha, and Bob had a little water left over, and at five in the afternoon they stopped at a group of abandoned cars to drink and rest. Abraham, Eugene, and Rosita began clearing cars of anything useful, and after insisting Daryl sit down, Carol joined them.<p>

"He told me about what you did." Eugene said by way of greeting. "How you got left behind for putting those dying people outta their misery."

"Rick?" She asked, crawling backwards out of the car she was digging through.

"Daryl." Abraham leaned on the hood of the car. "He was so out of it when you showed up, he was sitting on the floor in there goin' on about you like the sun shines outta your ass…" He grinned. "Poor bastard thought he'd lost his damn mind."

"Rick did what he thought was right…" Carol said, unable to shake her loyalty even now. "It wasn't though." She steeled herself. "We used to have a council because he didn't want the burden of being the leader… Not until it suited him, anyway." She shrugged.

"He's the only one who doesn't worship the ground you walk on, ma'am." Abe said sincerely.

She swallowed her tears down. "Really?" She squeaked.

"You're a sweet lil' thing," He shrugged with a chuckle. "I can see why."

He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and headed towards the other with the bag of supplies they'd found so far.

"I thought maybe you two were together." Rosita commented.

"Me and Daryl?" Carol asked, glancing over at him.

"Mm hmm." She hummed cheerfully. "How two people can be so obviously made for one another but not be doing the nasty is beyond me."

Carol choked a little. "It's not like that!" She protested. "Daryl is my best friend… I'm pretty sure it's mutual."

Rosita snorted. "Please. He wouldn't stop telling us _all _about you… He thought you could be dead and his voice got so husky it could'a pulled a dogsled."

Carol laughed at that. "I shouldn't be laughing." She pulled herself up. "I've killed four people in the last three weeks." She admitted.

"Four?" She asked.

"My adopted daughter, she… She wasn't well. She killed her sister and was going to kill Rick's baby." Carol sniffled and wiped her tears away. "I had to do something."

"Oh, honey," Rosita came around the car. "Don't cry."

She hugged Carol tightly and petted her hair whiles she sobbed.

* * *

><p>They slept in the cars that night. They had enough tinned food to each have a few mouthfuls, and them piled into vehicles to sleep. Abraham and Maggie took watch.<p>

Carol curled up on the bench seat next to Daryl and he slung his arm around her. Carl hesitated outside the door a moment.

"Can I sleep in here tonight?" He asked.

"Of course you can." Carol patted the space next to her.

"Somethin' happen with your dad?" Daryl asked.

"I just… It's weird, y'know?" Carl scuffed his toe on the asphalt. "He bit that guy's throat out." He whispered. "And he keeps looking at me like I'm going to drop dead or something, and it's just… Weird." He fidgeted.

"Get in," Carol instructed, reaching for him. He went willingly, scooting near to her and snuggling into her arms. "You can sort it all out with him in the morning. Does he know you're here?"

Carl nodded.

"Where's your hat?" Daryl asked.

"Left it with Judy… She likes the rattles on it."

"Sweet boy," Carol whispered as she kissed his hair. "I'm so glad you're okay."

He hugged her back. He eventually dozed off leaning against her, and she smiled as Daryl hugged her from the other size and sighed sleepily. The feel of security that came from sleeping in the cars was apparently enough to have him let his guard down, rather than sitting up to protect her like he did the night before.

Carol woke the next morning with her arm numb from the elbow down, where Carl was leaning against her. The sun was just rising above the trees and there was the barest hint of frost around the edges of the windshield. There were two dead walkers on the road that Maggie or Abe must have killed during the night.

Daryl sighed in his sleep and shifted, his shoulder nudging her in between the shoulder blades. Carl began to stir and sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"I'm gonna go check on Dad." He whispered, and slipped quietly from the car.

Daryl flinched in his sleep as the door shut and jerked awake. He looked down at her blearily, and she realised he hadn't slept much.

"Trouble sleeping?" She turned to face him.

He hummed affirmatively.

"Nightmares?" She asked, leaning her cheek on his shoulder.

"Yeah. Did I wake you?" He murmured. Rosita was right, she mused, his voice was so husky she could die sometimes.

"No, I don't think so." She returned.

They sat in silence for a while. His hand crept up to toy with a hole in the sleeve of her jacket as they waited, neither of them willing to leave the relative warmth of the car to brave the chilly morning air.

Finally, though, Carol's rumbling stomach broke the silence and Daryl disentangled himself from her.

"Gotta piss." He offered by way of explanation.

"I'll go find us something to eat." She said. "Don't jostle that arm too much." She reminded him.

"Yess'm" He teased. He exited the car and headed for the trees.

* * *

><p>In all honesty, Daryl didn't want to leave her side at all. As he trudged behind a large tree to relieve himself, he couldn't ignore the residual warmth from her body that seeped through his jacket.<p>

He wasn't sure about what had happened to her when she had been with Ty and the girls, only that Mika had died, and Lizzie had become so volatile that Carol had had to put her down.

Ty forgave her for Karen. They were closer than he had ever seen them, always stopping with an encouraging word or smile for one another, but at the same time, Carol was utterly broken.

He wasn't sure how to fix her.

She smiled at him when he returned from the woods with a few squirrels dangling from a string, then frowned whilst she tried to work out how he'd managed to catch them.

"Bob set snares last night." He offered. She relaxed and took the squirrels from him, preparing to skin and gut them to cook for a lean breakfast.

He looked around for something to do, but he was almost useless with his broken arm and it was starting to throb already.

With a sigh, he began to build a small fire for the squirrels to be roasted over.

* * *

><p>They sat around whilst they planned their route.<p>

"Where are we even headed?" Glenn asked.

"We need to find somewhere to stay during the worst of winter." Maggie added.

"We need to head to the city." Carol suggested. "We have a better chance of finding supplies there."

"What about the walkers?" Daryl chimed in. "They're worse in the cities an' we're down at least one fighter." He gestured to his own broken arm.

"I agree with Carol." Sasha said.

"Me too." Said Bob and Tyreese.

"What about Washington?" Asked Rosita. "Abe, Eugene? And Tara, I thought you were coming with?"

"We ain't gonna make it just on our own." Abe said. "We need to regroup after winter and try again. Any chance we could tag along?" He asked Rick.

"I don't see why not. We should take a vote on where to go." Rick replied.

Daryl snorted. "We gonna vote?" He asked. The combination of pain and exhaustion had worn his patience right down, and on top of the unresolved conflict between them about Rick's treatment of Carol, Daryl was spoiling for an argument. "Gonna re-establish the council, huh?"

"Yes," Rick replied evenly. "We'll vote."

"An' what if you don' like what we got to say?" Daryl bit out. "Gonna leave?"

"Daryl." Carol murmured. "I'll deal with Rick about that later."

"Like hell you will." He snapped. "I ain't gonna let him do anythin' to you!"

"He won't." She replied quietly.

"I can see…" Rick began. "I can see we got a few issues to resolve… But we need to decide where we're goin' and get moving. We can talk on the road."

"Atlanta." Carol said.

"Atlanta." Everyone echoed, except Rick and Maggie.

"I have to find Beth." She said.

"We go that way," Daryl pointed, "an' it'll take us back to the area we were in last time I saw her. We gotta find her 'fore we go." He said.

"Anyone else?" Rick asked. Nobody responded. "Aright then. We can take four cars, maybe five. Let's find some working ones and go from there."

The group dispersed. Carol lingered with Daryl as he lurched to his feet.

"Sorry for snappin'." He said softly.

"It's okay." She replied. "I'll find you some more painkillers."

"Naw. They make me loopy an' I gotta stay awake." He disagreed.

"Your job is to heal, Daryl. We can't make it without you."

He sighed. "Can't even drive… Fuck, I hate bein' injured."

She rubbed his good arm. "Consider it compulsory rest." She smiled. "You've earned it."

He followed her to the same pickup truck they'd slept in last night, now running and with gas in the tank, and climbed in beside her. She looked a little nervous behind the wheel of such an old fashioned truck, but when he patted her knee reassuringly she smiled at him.

His bad mood lifted, just a little.

* * *

><p><strong>To the three people who left me lovely reviews, I've decided to make this into a multi-chap! Thanks for the inspiration! <strong>

**To 'Guest', I appreciate your feedback, and from what I can tell you didn't like the way I portrayed Rick? I have to say, I felt he would abandon anybody, absolutely anybody, to keep his kids safe. He would've thought they were all going to die in Terminus, and so to have not only Carl, but Judith as well, back with him, would be worth more than anything to him. I didn't mean it to come across as 'Rick doesn't actually care about anyone except himself', just that Rick would leave Daryl just like he left all the other survivors at the end of S4, where he just grabbed Carl and ran without searching for other survivors, to keep his children alive and safe. Thanks for providing me with a bit of intelligent debate and taking the time to review with your opinion! As you can probably tell, I'm not as big on spoilers as you seem to be… So anything that happens after S4 is purely speculation!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Guys, I stuffed up.**

**Nothing major, but I said Mika was dead… In my 'The Farm' arc, Mika is well and truly alive! And since I'm going to have this link up with the arc at the end, Mika is alive. Alive! But Lizzie is still deaded. **

**Reviews addressed at the end.**

* * *

><p>She took watch that night. They'd been on the road for a week now, and Daryl was starting to worry her. For a couple of days, he'd been snappy and belligerent, but she didn't mind. She knew what it was like to be in pain. She knew how it felt to feel useless, and so his snark and grouchiness hadn't upset her any.<p>

Recently, though, he'd been staring off into space more often than not. He refused food, saying that it should go to someone who was actually contributing, and she could see the effect hunger was having on his demeanor. She knew he wasn't sleeping, either. She thought maybe living in such close confines had soured him of her presence, and so she volunteered herself for watch duty to give him some breathing room and let him sleep.

"Carol?" It was Rick.

She sighed internally, but gave him an uncertain smile. "I'm up here." She called down from the top of the pickup.

"Mind if I join you?" He stopped near the bed, ready to climb up.

In response, she patted the spot next to her.

He clambered up and settled beside her, hands clasped in his lap and head bowed. "Thank you for letting Carl sleep in there with you two."

"It's nothing." She said. "There's enough room, and he's no bother."

"He missed you."

"I was only gone for a day, Rick."

The silence stretched and she felt bad. She had missed him, believe it or not, and she worried that she had shut him down.

"I did the wrong thing." He croaked, looking down at his clasped hands. "I am so sorry I did that to you. Jesus, Carol." He shook slightly.

She blinked. Was he crying? "You did the wrong thing." She murmured. "But maybe I did too."

"I left you out there on your own." He moaned.

"Rick, I can't apologise for Karen and David. I did what I thought was right." She said firmly. "But it plays in my mind, over and over, and I'll never be able to forget it. I don't blame you, you know."

"You don't?" He asked skeptically. "I did you wrong because of me and my problems… I was worried you'd lose it like I did."

"You were scared for your children. I understood that." She offered. "You did what you thought you had to to keep them safe. I couldn't do that for Sophia, but I did for Mika and Judith and it's just one more thing that's piling up on my conscience… So I understand why you left me out there."

"I thought…" He swallowed thickly. "I thought, because you were so calm about it… I thought you'd gone cold, like Shane, or Carl. Carl, he came back. But I was worried you'd snapped, and I know you haven't. You're still Carol."

"Of course I am." She smiled, then sobered. "Rick, I'm not sure I've forgiven you just yet… But I get it, okay? And I'm glad you're alive."

"Can I…?" He asked awkwardly, extending one arm slightly.

She hesitated before leaning into his side.

"I know it's not for me to decide," Rick said leaning his cheek against her head. "But I want us to be friends again. Like it was before I left you out there. I screwed up and I'm so, so sorry… I love you, you know? You're one of the best people I've ever met and I didn't realise it until I messed us up."

"Oh, Rick," She mumbled, wrapping an arm around him and discreetly wiping her eyes. "We _are_ friends. I'm still pissed at you, but I missed you and it hurt when you said you didn't want me around."

He squeezed her. "I do want you around… You saved me, and us. You saved everyone. I thought Judy was dead."

"That was Tyreese and the girls. Not me."

"Mika told me that Lizzie tried to smother her. And then," he laughed softly. "To hear her tell it, you appeared like some sort of fairy out of the forest or something and saved the day."

"She loves fairy tales." Carol smiled. "Rick, I love those kids like they're my own. Carl, Judith, Mika… All the others…" She trailed off. "I would do anything for them."

"I'm sorry." He said again. "I wish I could take it back."

"You can't." She said, but she nuzzled into him and hugged him back.

Three walkers came upon them during the night, but Carol hopped down and knifed them all without needing to raise the alarm.

She and Rick sat and talked about what had happened since the day he sent her off. She had convinced herself that Rick was cold, unyielding, not to be trusted, but she truly understood his motives. He had left her on the side of the road to protect his children; she had killed two people, then one of those children she'd so desperately tried to keep safe.

"I was scared I'd been wrong all along." He confessed as the sky began to lighten in the east. "When you were so calm afterwards… I went crazy after Lori, I was afraid it proved that I was weak and it scared me that you could have done so much better since the start. Saved more people, been a better leader. You're designed to lead, Carol… But when I realised that I panicked."

"Rick, I'm not a leader… I'm not!" She insisted when he shook his head. "I don't think I could take that burden."

"You could." He said. "But you won't have to. Nobody will. We have a council again."

"What do you think'll happen?" She mused. "I don't want to live on the road again."

"I want to get restocked and find another place." Rick said. "Somewhere safe."

"Y'all want me to take over?" Tyreese interrupted. "Go eat."

Rick jumped down off the roof of the pickup and held up a hand for Carol to take. She let him help her down, and then patted his arm in a friendly way. He nodded to Tyreese and went to wake Carl and Mika for breakfast.

Carol opened the door and climbed into the cab. She placed a gentle hand on Daryl's knee and shook him carefully. "Daryl." She whispered.

His eyes opened and he rolled his head to give her a listless look. "You a'ight?"

"I'm fine." She squeezed his leg. "Breakfast is ready."

"Ain't hungry." He mumbled and shut his eyes again.

"Daryl." She said again.

"Go get somethin' t'eat." He mumbled. "You need to keep your strength up."

"So do you." She said gently. "Come on."

"Jus' go _away_, Carol."

That stung. She realised her fear that he was getting sick of her company was correct, and so she let go of his knee and crawled backwards out of the cab.

"Sorry for bothering you." She said with a weak smile. "I'll bring you some food anyway… In case you change your mind."

"S'okay." He muttered and turned his face away, trying to get comfortable.

A cold feeling settled in her stomach as she shut the door.

* * *

><p>Glenn was the only one keeping watch over the food that had been left for Carol and Daryl.<p>

"Hey." He said.

"Morning." She replied shakily.

"What happened?" He asked, instantly concerned. "Are you okay?"

"Uh huh… Just tired, I guess." She sniffled.

"And…?" He prompted.

"I'm worried about Daryl." She admitted. "He's not right."

"Aw," Glenn stood and wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug. She squawked but chuckled as he squeezed her. "He'll be fine now that he's got you back." He wriggled and shook her a little, trying to make her laugh. It worked, and she hugged him back.

"I missed you, Glenn." She patted his cheek.

"I missed you too… More than I realised, you know? We all just thought you were gone, and it sucked…" He sat back down on the road and held up her bowl of squirrel meat. She sat beside him, groaning as her body protested. "It was horrible, thinking everybody was dead, but the feeling when everyone showed up was just amazing."

"You and Maggie got out though. At least you were together." She smiled gently.

"We weren't. She was gone by the time I woke up. Cell block A was completely wrecked and it was just me and Tara, and we met up with Abe and Rosita and Eugene not long after."

"That must have been horrible." Carol sympathised.

"Hey, we're all back together now, right? The dream team." He joked weakly, throwing a couple of feeble punches.

She snickered.

"Most of us, anyway." He murmured.

"We're going to find Beth." Carol said. "We will."

"Yeah." Glenn said. "Daryl needs food. Don't let him upset you, okay? He's always been an asshole, this is no different to any other time you've seen him."

She swatted him playfully and took Daryl's plate.

* * *

><p>The door cracked open and a bowl of squirrel meat appeared next to him.<p>

"Eat." Carol commanded, hands on her hips. "Please."

"You should have it." He said.

"I've eaten already. Just a little bit, Daryl. A couple of bites." She coaxed.

"Don't need your damn coddling!" He snapped suddenly. She jumped a little but stayed where she was. He breathed hard through his nose and eyed her angrily. She stood with her arms wrapped around herself outside the cab, lips pressed together. He sighed. "M'sorry." He said. "I jus'… I can't eat. Can't sleep. I'm just wastin' space and it's bullshit." He looked down for a moment. "Sorry for snappin' at you."

"It's okay." She nodded. "Can I come in?"

He patted the seat next to him and shifted the bowl to his lap.

"You can't eat?" She asked. "Not even a little?"

"Tastes like sawdust. Can't swallow it."

"It's not exactly five-star," She said dryly. "But if you don't eat it's going to take a long time for you to feel better."

He snorted. "Think I ain't never been depressed before?" He quipped.

"Just eat something then, smartass." She shot back with a teasing look. "You know the drill."

"Y'gotta eat somethin' too." He bargained. "Can't have you fadin' away."

"Fine." She said with a challenging eyebrow raise. She took a piece of the meat and put it in her mouth. She nodded towards the bowl.

He chewed slowly, the meat feeling like pulp in his mouth. Squirrel wasn't usually so bad, but it felt wrong in his mouth somehow. It didn't taste like anything, and he struggled to swallow it. When he was finished, she nudged the bowl. He sighed but took another piece.

Whilst he ate, she leaned over into the back seat and fished around for the half-filled water bottle she had stashed in there. Once she found it, she turned around again and slid back down in the drivers' seat. Mika was approaching the window, and she opened the door to greet her.

"Can I ride with you guys today?" She asked.

"I guess so," Carol shrugged. "Is everything okay?"

"Judith keeps crying… I don't think she likes driving very much."

"Poor thing…" Carol sighed. "Are we leaving soon?"

"Glenn sent me to get Daryl's bowl and then we're going." She confirmed.

"Alright, well, brush your teeth before we go, okay?" Never mind the fact that they had no toothpaste, someone had found an unopened box of toothbrushes still in their packets. Everybody brushed their teeth with a little water, and it made them all feel a little more put-together. Carol hunted out both hers and Daryl's, and they quickly scrubbed the taste of squirrel from their mouths and spat on the asphalt.

Daryl felt a little better for having Carol back with him. He hadn't mentioned it to her, but he'd been unable to sleep without her there until the sound of her voice had filtered down through the roof of the truck whilst she talked with Rick.

* * *

><p>"How's about… I spy, with my little eye… something beginning with… C?" Daryl said.<p>

"Carol?" Mika tried.

"Nope."

"Car?"

"Nope."

"Colours?"

"Nope." He smirked at Carol over Mika's head.

"Uh…" Mika flailed. "Calculator?"

"Nope."

"Can I have a hint?" She begged.

"Nope."

"Confused? As in, me?" She pleaded.

Daryl laughed outright at that. "Nope."

Mika fell silent, thinking hard.

"California pines?" Carol tried.

"Nope."

Daryl's slump in mood seemed to have ended. After the Woodbury group had moved in, Daryl had become something of a hero among the children because of his hunting and walker-slaying prowess. Eventually he had warmed up to them enough to show that he had a real soft spot for them, and Mika had used that to her full advantage to get out of Rick's car with the cranky Judith.

She had coaxed him into a game of 'I Spy', and the distraction was doing him good. Carol was relieved to see him acting almost normal, although she could see that every bump in the road was hurting his arm, and he had large dark circles under his eyes. The bruise across his cheekbone was beginning to go yellow, and the swelling had gone down in general from the beating he had taken before he had even reached Terminus. He had reluctantly let her inspect his ribs for breaks, and the size of the welts and bruises under his shirt had shocked her. Somehow, he had tolerated her leaning against them while she slept without letting on.

"I give up." Mika sighed.

"Me too." Carol added.

"I'm jus' messin' with ya," Daryl snickered. "It was 'Carol'."

Mika gave an exasperated growl and threw her hands up in defeat. Daryl and Carol laughed.

"Even though Daryl is _really bad_ at 'I Spy'," Mika said. "It's way better in here with you guys that with Rick and Glenn and Maggie and Carl and Judith."

"Carl ain't much fun, huh?" Daryl asked.

Mika shrugged. "He's all twitchy and he doesn't like touching anyone… It gets pretty uncomfortable all crammed in there. There's more room in this truck."

"He'll get back to normal." Carol said, "Just give him a while. Everybody's been through some scary stuff and we all need a while to get used to it, right?" She patted Mika's knee.

The little girl suddenly looked close to tears. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Lizzie's pills." She whimpered.

"It's not your fault, sweetheart." Carol soothed. "Sometimes people just get sick, and it happens." She glanced in the rear-view mirror. Everybody was still following in their cars, except Abe and Eugene, who had hijacked another Army truck that sat far higher than usual cars and gave them a vantage point. They travelled ahead of Carol's car, with Rosita and Tara sitting in the back, occasionally making faces at Mika when they pulled close enough.

She'd told Daryl of how she and Tyreese had been collecting water when they'd heard Mika scream and Judith begin to howl. _When they'd found them, Lizzie had Mika pinned to the ground in a puddle of blood. Mika and been bucking and screaming as Lizzie loomed with her knife in hand, dripping with Mika's blood. Tyreese had rushed in and hauled Lizzie off, shaking her until she dropped her weapon. The look in her eyes had given Carol chills. They were cold, flat, almost shark-like, and completely devoid of emotion. Mika lay sobbing, curled around her stomach, trying to staunch the slow but steady flow of blood that stained the earth around her._

_Judith had been trying to push herself up on her blanket, howling with terror._

_"It's okay." Lizzie had said, her sweet voice completely at odds with the bloody knife at her feet. "I didn't hurt her brain. She'll come back."_

_"Lizzie…" Carol had whispered, as she pressed her folded shirt to Mika's stomach wound. "What have you done?"_

_"You got here before I did Judith, but once Mika's back you'll see. Now we don't have to worry about her any more, because she can't die! Unless you kill her."_

_The walkers had been drawn to the commotion, and began filtering through the gap n the fence. Lizzie brightened._

_"Oh, look! They're coming to watch!"_

_"Ty, take Judy." Carol had murmured lowly, trying not to catch Lizzie's attention. "I'll bring Mika in a moment. Go inside."_

_Tyreese slowly released Lizzie, and scooped up the hysterical baby. He'd backed towards the house. The walkers were almost upon them, and Carol scooped Mika up under the knees and shoulders and staggered towards the house._

_"Carol, wait! You have to let her come back!" Lizzie had cried, rushing after them. "Carol!" When Carol didn't stop, she turned to the snarling walkers. "Help me!" She pleaded with them. Carol stumbled up the stairs, tears running down her face. She had dumped Mika on the floor in the kitchen and scrambled to shut the door. She stifled a scream as she saw Lizzie running towards the walkers. One reached for her and sunk its teeth into her lower arm._

_The girl stopped in puzzlement, then tried to turn back when another bit her on the shoulder. She had let out a screech of pain, and Carol fumbled for her gun._

_The walkers began to overpower the screaming girl, as she begged them to stop._

_Carol had raised the gun in her shaking hand, and aimed. The gun went off with a bang, and her screams were silenced. The only sound was that of the walkers tearing into her body. After a beat, Mika had wailed in agony from the floor and Carol had slammed the door shut and run to her._

"Carol!" Daryl's shout snapped her back to reality as he leaned over and hauled on the steering wheel, swerving the car back into the middle of the road. She had lost focus and the car had been travelling at speed towards the ditch that ran alongside the tarmac.

Abe pulled the Army truck over up ahead, and she indicated to let the others know she was pulling over. She clambered out of the pickup on shaky legs and dry-heaved, hunched double. Daryl bolted around the front as fast as he could and stood rubbing her back as she choked on sobs.

"What the hell happened?" Abe barked as he climbed down. "Everyone alright?"

"I'm okay," She managed, waving him away. "But someone else needs to drive the pickup for a while." She stood up and was a little surprised when, in front of everyone, Daryl put his arm around her waist and squeezed her comfortingly.

* * *

><p><strong>Sophiacharlotte and Demoninmyview, look at what you've done! You've created a monster! <strong>

**la8255, guest, melniewn, chey8, tinkerbell99, georgiapeachs, bspooky3, thanks for your reviews! It's super nice to get them and very inspiring **

**My fave review for Ch.2 was from 'guest', who said "love it. now make them kiss"… All in good time :P Patience, my child!**

**Thanks for reading, I hope you're all enjoying so far!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Here we go! As always, thanks for the reads and reviews, they mean the world!**

* * *

><p>The city was eerily silent.<p>

They were in one of the branching arms of Atlanta, surrounded by tall buildings and empty cars. The shattered windows of ground-floor stores gaped like angry jaws with blood-smeared teeth, and the walkers of people who had hung themselves dangled from the fourth and fifth stories, blowing in the breeze and snarling faintly.

Other than the pitiful corpses, the only sounds were the whistling of wind through broken windows and the quiet tread of their boots on the cracked asphalt.

"Mall's this way." Rick muttered, pointing with his long-handled knife. They crept around the corner, Mika and Rosita at the centre of their group. Rosita cradled Judith tightly to her chest, trying to keep her quiet, but the infant seemed so awed by the towering constructions that she sat mutely in Rosita's arms, her fingers jammed into her mouth and an expression of wonder on the tiny face.

Abe and Daryl slipped forward, ahead of the group, weapons drawn and scouting silently for lurking walkers. Daryl had found a tubi-bangage that was currently supporting his arm, although he had abandoned his crossbow in favour of a machete to reduce the stress on the almost-recovered limb.

The silence with which the men moved added to the surreal quiet of the scene. Surrounded by looming relics of pre-apocalypse life and abandoned vehicles, they crept almost inaudibly up the road towards the front entrance to the mall, communicating mostly by glances. Once they reached the bulletproof automatic doors, Daryl rapped sharply to draw out any walkers inside the mall, but there were none. Abe wrestled the doors apart with his crowbar, and after a quick sweep Daryl reappeared and beckoned them forward. With a sigh of relief, Rick squeezed Carol's arm and headed for the open door, disappearing down the street and into the dark opening at a trot.

The rest of the group followed, and Mika took Rosita's free hand in one of hers, and reached for Carol with the other.

"I'm scared of the dark." She whispered. Carol squeezed her fingers.

"That's okay." She answered, and pulled the girl gently inside.

* * *

><p>It was very dim inside the building. It looked to be four or five stories tall, and had a fountain in the centre of the ground floor that had long since run dry. There was a faint green line in the rim that suggested the water had gone stagnant and evaporated, rather than been used by anyone living in the abandoned shopping centre.<p>

The checkerboard linoleum floor was coated in a thick layer of dust, thick enough that the pattern was a little hard to discern. Long-dead pot plants stood morbid sentry outside each store, brittle branches rattling unsettlingly in the slight breeze that followed them in whilst Abe tried to jimmy the doors closed again.

The security rollers blocking each storefront were intact, and Sasha and Bob went to the nearest ones, dragging their weapons along the cage-like fronts and trying to attract any walkers that hadn't noticed them yet. Eugene and Maggie went the other way, covering the stores they hadn't checked yet.

Somehow, the mall was completely free of walkers, judging by the lack of activity as the rest of the group stood in the open space, barely breathing for the nervous tension in the air.

"Looks clear." Glenn said at normal volume. His voice echoed thinly in the cavernous building and everybody strained their ears for the sound of walkers.

"Guess so." Daryl said after a while. "Don't look like too many people'a been through neither. Place is locked up tight, no lootin' or nothin'."

Abe grunted with exertion, trying to manually force the locking mechanism he'd inadvertently destroyed into position to keep the doors shut. Every time he released it, however, it would slip back a little and the doors would crack open enough that somebody could slip through.

"We should hole up here for a few days." Rick said, now bouncing Judith gently.

"We couldn't just set up here?" Carl asked, a glimmer of hope cracking through his exhausted and cool façade.

"No," Rick glanced around nervously. "It's too attractive to anyone passing through. We're not capable of fighting for this place."

"We'll sweep every store in the place." Carol suggested. "Take what we need, lock it all back up again. Once we're settled we could come back here if it's still abandoned; get supplies as we can carry them."

"Good idea." Rick agreed. "It's getting darker in here." He observed.

"Sundown ain't far away. Y'wanna help me find somethin' to eat in here?" This part was directed at Carol as Daryl dropped his bag on the floor against the fountain.

"Sure." She said. "Just let me get a drink first." She let go of Mika's hand to rifle through her own bag, where she'd put a few bottles of water to share around, and the girl wrapped her arms around herself.

"Are you going in there?" She pointed tremulously at the dark storefronts.

"Uh huh," Daryl confirmed. "Hopefully there's somethin' around here for dinner."

"There might be walkers." She whispered.

"Sweetheart, there aren't any walkers in here that we know about… And they're not smart enough to hide from us." Carol said as she petted her blonde mop of hair.

"Be careful, okay? It's dark."

"We will be, a'ight?" Daryl tried to appease her. "An' 'sides, Carol's got nine lives. She'll protect us."

"Yeah," Carl chimed in. "You saw her take down those walkers yesterday!" He grinned and made hand-chopping gestures. "She's like a ninja!" He teased.

Carol dusted imaginary specks off her shoulder and blew on her fingernails. "What can I say?" She teased back.

"Come on, sensei." Daryl scoffed. "Let's find us some grub."

* * *

><p>The first floor turned up a few chocolate bars from small displays and some granola squares, which, although not much of a meal, could be rationed out easily in a pinch. As they scavenged, they kept their talking to a minimum until they had completely inspected the stores for walkers. Each one was empty.<p>

"What's up with Mika?" Daryl queried as they rummaged through drawers in the office of a shoe shop. It wasn't a store they would be clearing out for its actual contents. The walls were covered in displays of sparkly high heels and strappy, entirely useless sandals, and Carol made a note to keep an eye out for a hiking store or something similar for sturdy boots.

"She's afraid of the dark." Carol answered, reaching as far as she could into the top drawer. "I can't blame her, really."

"Guess not." Daryl shrugged, triumphantly holding up a flashlight scrounged from the cabinet containing a fire-extinguisher. "You findin' much?"

"Nope." She sighed. "Maybe we should check upstairs. I can't imagine a bite of chocolate and," She wrinkled her nose. "A chunk of 'Wildberry Rush' is going to fill anyone up. This looks awful, by the way." She held up one of the granola bars for him to inspect in the gloom.

"Probably so full'a preservatives it's still good to eat." He shrugged.

The next floor was more successful. There had been a food court, and the stench of long-rotten food made Carol gag slightly. Daryl wheeled around and let the swinging door shut behind him.

"Fuck, that's rank!" He breathed deliberately through his mouth for a moment. "You still wanna go in?"

She swallowed against the smell. "No. But we could find something in there."

"A'ight, then." Daryl bounced on his toes, hyping himself up to enter, then tapped her on the shoulder and headed in.

* * *

><p>"You assholes better be hungry." Daryl announced as he and Carol descended the motionless escalator.<p>

As they reached the bottom, they dropped their bags and let the contents spill out. Jerky and packets of dried fruit were distributed amongst them all, and Daryl revealed an abundance of bottled water. There was enough that everybody drank their fill and were able to scrub up with washcloths and body wash from one of the stalls over the sinks in the restrooms.

Whilst they had been searching for food, the others had hauled dressers and wardrobes from the first-floor furniture store to barricade the doors.

"There are beds in there." Glenn gestured. "They're so soft." He sounded a little dazed.

Carol sunk to the floor to eat her dinner, next to Mika who was happy to lean up against her.

"A'ight, squirt?" Daryl grunted at her.

She nodded back, feeling infinitely safer nestled with her surrogate mother.

Once everyone was finished, it was virtually pitch-black. Daryl flicked on his flashlight and packed away the remainder of the food, before heading to the furniture store and flopping onto the nearest bed to the door with a delighted groan. The rest followed suit, picking out where they were planning to sleep and gathering a few blankets to ward off the chill.

"Can I sleep with you?" He heard Mika ask Carol. "It's so empty in here."

"Of course you can," He heard over the soft murmur of people organizing themselves. "Where are we going to go?"

"Come on." He sat up and patted the mattress next to him. "S'gonna get colder yet."

Carol lay down, her back pressing against his, and cuddled Mika closely. "Are you okay?" She whispered as Mika drifted off. He rearranged the blankets over them all.

"Yeah." He replied. "You?"

"I wish we could stay here." She admitted.

He hummed. "Probably no good for more than a year, though. Saw the building certificate before an' this place ain't had a building inspection for fifteen years… Damn near ready to come tumblin' down, give it enough time."

"There's no water nearby, either." She added. "We should find a car big enough to cram full of supplies though."

"We'll sort it tomorrow, yeah?" His voice was growing groggy.

"Guess so." She nudged him lightly in the back. "Night, Daryl."

"Night." He muttered, and quickly dropped into sleep as she pressed closer to his back, trying to absorb as much body heat as possible.

* * *

><p>In the end, they stayed for almost a week before they moved on. In that time, they'd scoured the mall top to bottom, hunting for useful items. They'd packed three cars full of food and bottled water, extra clothing and blankets. They'd emptied the pharmacy of everything they could think of, and grabbed toothpaste and hairbrushes as well.<p>

They left because the most recent scouting mission around the city, consisting of Rick, Glenn, Maggie, Abe, and Daryl, had found signs of another group about forty minutes' walk away.

They'd discussed it long into the night, but nobody was willing to lose any more people over the mall, given that they had no information about the other group except that there seemed to be thirty to forty of them.

"What's a group that size doing wandering around?" Glenn asked.

"Probably same thing we're doing." Maggie shrugged. 'Looking for someplace safe to set up. Thing is, they're big enough to defend that place and we ain't."

They were currently in a sprawling hunting and camping store. It had had half-a-dozen walkers in it, but they were feeble and easily dispatched. They had split up into small groups, each searching for different items. Daryl and Glenn were clearing out the weapons section, gathering ammunition. Rick and Carol were in the clothing section along with Maggie and Bob, grabbing anything that looked hard-wearing enough to last a long time. Sasha and Michonne were grabbing hiking boots and sturdy shoes, whilst Eugene and Rosita kept watch with Mika and Carl. Tyreese was patrolling the dark and dingy remainder of the store, clutching the rifle with their final few bullets in it.

They had been in there for half-an-hour before Tyreese came bolting back as quickly as he could whilst remaining silent.

He gripped Carol and Rick by the arms and towed them back towards the rest of the group.

"What's going on?" Carol asked, but Tyreese clapped a hard hand over her mouth.

"Another group!" He hissed. "They came in the back of the store. I think it's the same group whose camp we found. We gotta go, now."

Carol's eyes widened in fear. "Get everybody out." She breathed.

At that moment, they heard Maggie scream.

Carol drew her knuckle-duster knife and raced towards the sound of Maggie's loud sobs.

"Maggie!" Glenn hollered as he sprinted towards the darkened rear of the store. Daryl threw him a box of ammo and he loaded his gun as he ran, dropping bullets in his haste.

They arrived at the same time to see Maggie sink to the ground, facing away from them, with a pair of arms wrapped around her neck.

Glenn choked out a sob and raised his gun, preparing to kill the walker that had somehow grabbed his fully armed and capable wife. He stepped around Maggie where she lay crumpled in a death grip with the walker, lining it up in his sights. He almost squeezed the trigger when he realised that, instead of grimacing in pain as she sobbed, Maggie was smiling.

He glanced in shock at the cluster of strange men who were watching him warily. They were all armed, but they didn't look afraid of the scene before them; rather, they were eyeing Carol, Daryl and Glenn with distrust.

"Mags?" Glenn tried. "Maggie, what's happening?"

"Bethie!" She cried, burying her face into the blonde tangle of hair. "Oh my God!" She began sobbing too hard to speak, squeezing the shaking body tightly to her, still kneeling untidily on the floor in the dingy light.

"Beth?" Daryl repeated. Carol had her hands clapped over her mouth, still hanging onto her handgun, tears running down her cheeks.

Maggie finally released her from her tight embrace and cupped her pale face, wiping away the tears that left smudges on her dirty cheeks. Beth gripped her sister's wrists as she bawled helplessly and Glenn stepped towards them, dropping to his knees and catching her as she launched herself into his arms. He sniffled as he hugged her to him, letting her soak his shirt with tears. Maggie beamed, face blotchy with tears, hands shaking, and he thought she'd never looked more radiant.

The men spread out a little, shifting anxiously. Daryl raised his crossbow as they slowly encircled him and Carol, and Beth choked out in sudden fright.

"They're my family!" She stuttered through her tears. "They're okay, I swear!"

The men lowered their guns and knives, and Daryl stared them down for a moment before he let the point of his machete drop to the ground, uneasy in the presence of so many armed strangers.

Rick jogged out from between the racks of clothing, hand on his handgun, but staggered to a halt when he saw Glenn and Maggie clinging to Beth.

Silence reigned for almost a minute as everybody came to terms with Beth's sudden return, until one of the others stepped forward.

"I'm Daniel." Said the scruffy-looking man. "I'm the leader of our group."

"Rick," Rick gestured to himself. "Carol, Daryl, Glenn and Maggie."

"Who's in charge?"

"Ah, nobody." Rick looked at him, then over his shoulder to the group of ten or so men surrounding them. "We've recently been… Displaced. We don't want any trouble." His eyes kept flicking disbelievingly to Beth. "Are you okay, Beth?"

"Fine." She whispered, blinking rapidly as Glenn rocked her, pretty much seated in his lap. Maggie had scooted over to Glenn's side and seemed unable to stop petting Beth's hair. "They're good people, honest."

"Is this all of you?" Daniel asked, gesturing at them with his rifle.

"No." Carol said. "We're just trying to get some supplies, then we'll leave you alone."

"We're not established here. We're just passing through, like you. Is there a destination in mind?"

Carol glanced at Rick anxiously. "Not as yet." She reached out to Beth with one slender hand. "Beth. Come on." She beckoned. Beth rose slowly to her feet and staggered towards them, falling into Carol's arms. "Oh honey," She cooed as Beth dissolved into another round of tears. "You're okay?" Beth nodded mutely against Carol's shoulder. The tears were beginning to threaten and she discreetly wiped at her eyes with a soft laugh.

"Is there… Is there any chance we could meet the rest of your group? We're hunting for a safe place too." Daniel glanced around hesitantly. "It's just, we have women… Children… One of the women is pregnant. We're desperate." He rubbed nervously at his short beard.

"We'll have to talk to the rest of our group." Rick said, fidgeting.

"We'll wait." Daniel said. "Thank you."

Beth threw herself against Daryl's chest and he wrapped his arms around her reflexively. "Daryl!" She squeaked. "I thought you were dead!"

"Back at'cha," Daryl muttered, looking decisively teary-eyed. "Glad you're a'ight, Beth." He patted her arm awkwardly. She let him go and went to Rick, who squeezed her tightly.

"Where's everyone else?" She asked. "Are they…?" She didn't dare finish the question, but Carol raced to reassure her.

"They're okay. Don't worry."

* * *

><p>The rest of the group were ecstatic to see Beth, but they regarded her group with concern.<p>

"They want to join us." Rick muttered into Michonne's ear.

"What are you thinking?" She asked. "We gonna let them?"

"They seem like good people. Me and Daryl are going to talk to them, you should come along. Try and get a read on them."

"Can we afford to take on thirty-odd people, Rick? We're just making it."

"We can pool our resources… They've got kids with them. Pregnant women."

She sighed. "We can talk to them, I guess."

* * *

><p><strong>Time to address reviews! I like having an open discussion going about the story and I really appreciate the comments!<strong>

***Guest: Any comments on the actual story? Writing style, that sort of thing? I'm aware the plan would exist but surely you wouldn't just assume everybody was okay (especially with the amount of sick people there) and disappear on your own merry path? I feel like Rick flip-flopped towards the end of S4 part 1 between wanting to be in charge again and wanting to be completely removed from any sort of leadership as and when it suited him. I also understand that he was still recovering from Lori's death, his psychotic break, seeing Herschel killed, losing friends to walkers and the flu, believing Carl to be dead, and finding Judith's bloody carseat, though, and I do sort of understand his "Oh my god you're okay, let's get the f*ck out of here!" actions when he found Carl. **

**I am also aware what a bus looks like, but thank you for sharing some of your superior world knowledge and enlightening me just in case.**

**I am definitely of the mindset that Rick should not have left Carol, and if you consider that to be me wearing 'blinders', then sure, I guess I am. I do get that he thought he was doing the right thing, but Rick strikes me at that time as a man who is aware he is incapable of leading them but unsure of his worth as anything but a leader… By making the decision to leave Carol, he is reassuring himself that he is still able to make hard decisions. The problem is, his argument as to **_**why**_** he made that decision is hella weak and he knows it, which is why he resorts to wounding her emotionally with "Nobody will want you there when they find out what you've done." (Abridged, obviously, just in case you're also a little doubtful of my ability to remember quotes.)**

**I do like Rick as a fallible character. I think he is fascinating to observe but he is not some all-knowing perfect leader, and I think the presence of another leader threatens his perceived position in the group.**

**And I'm kind of trying to keep spoiler-free so I'm not sure what you're referencing re. the whole 'Carol was in the right place at the right time' thing.**

**Oops, I accidentally wrote an essay! (I do actually appreciate a good debate, so if you wanna send me a PM we could carry this on? That applies to anyone reading this! Send me a PM and we can talk about next season or where you think the story is going or Rick's personality flaws or whatever!)**

***Sophiacharlotte, you're freaking adorable! Your reviews make me sooo excited to write the next chapter!**

***GotHimASandwich, thanks for the review! Much appreciated :D**

**Thanks for reading, everyone! **


	5. Chapter 5

**Here we go! As always, thanks for the reads and reviews, they mean the world!**

* * *

><p>The city was eerily silent.<p>

They were in one of the branching arms of Atlanta, surrounded by tall buildings and empty cars. The shattered windows of ground-floor stores gaped like angry jaws with blood-smeared teeth, and the walkers of people who had hung themselves dangled from the fourth and fifth stories, blowing in the breeze and snarling faintly.

Other than the pitiful corpses, the only sounds were the whistling of wind through broken windows and the quiet tread of their boots on the cracked asphalt.

"Mall's this way." Rick muttered, pointing with his long-handled knife. They crept around the corner, Mika and Rosita at the centre of their group. Rosita cradled Judith tightly to her chest, trying to keep her quiet, but the infant seemed so awed by the towering constructions that she sat mutely in Rosita's arms, her fingers jammed into her mouth and an expression of wonder on the tiny face.

Abe and Daryl slipped forward, ahead of the group, weapons drawn and scouting silently for lurking walkers. Daryl had found a tubi-bangage that was currently supporting his arm, although he had abandoned his crossbow in favour of a machete to reduce the stress on the almost-recovered limb.

The silence with which the men moved added to the surreal quiet of the scene. Surrounded by looming relics of pre-apocalypse life and abandoned vehicles, they crept almost inaudibly up the road towards the front entrance to the mall, communicating mostly by glances. Once they reached the bulletproof automatic doors, Daryl rapped sharply to draw out any walkers inside the mall, but there were none. Abe wrestled the doors apart with his crowbar, and after a quick sweep Daryl reappeared and beckoned them forward. With a sigh of relief, Rick squeezed Carol's arm and headed for the open door, disappearing down the street and into the dark opening at a trot.

The rest of the group followed, and Mika took Rosita's free hand in one of hers, and reached for Carol with the other.

"I'm scared of the dark." She whispered. Carol squeezed her fingers.

"That's okay." She answered, and pulled the girl gently inside.

* * *

><p>It was very dim inside the building. It looked to be four or five stories tall, and had a fountain in the centre of the ground floor that had long since run dry. There was a faint green line in the rim that suggested the water had gone stagnant and evaporated, rather than been used by anyone living in the abandoned shopping centre.<p>

The checkerboard linoleum floor was coated in a thick layer of dust, thick enough that the pattern was a little hard to discern. Long-dead pot plants stood morbid sentry outside each store, brittle branches rattling unsettlingly in the slight breeze that followed them in whilst Abe tried to jimmy the doors closed again.

The security rollers blocking each storefront were intact, and Sasha and Bob went to the nearest ones, dragging their weapons along the cage-like fronts and trying to attract any walkers that hadn't noticed them yet. Eugene and Maggie went the other way, covering the stores they hadn't checked yet.

Somehow, the mall was completely free of walkers, judging by the lack of activity as the rest of the group stood in the open space, barely breathing for the nervous tension in the air.

"Looks clear." Glenn said at normal volume. His voice echoed thinly in the cavernous building and everybody strained their ears for the sound of walkers.

"Guess so." Daryl said after a while. "Don't look like too many people'a been through neither. Place is locked up tight, no lootin' or nothin'."

Abe grunted with exertion, trying to manually force the locking mechanism he'd inadvertently destroyed into position to keep the doors shut. Every time he released it, however, it would slip back a little and the doors would crack open enough that somebody could slip through.

"We should hole up here for a few days." Rick said, now bouncing Judith gently.

"We couldn't just set up here?" Carl asked, a glimmer of hope cracking through his exhausted and cool façade.

"No," Rick glanced around nervously. "It's too attractive to anyone passing through. We're not capable of fighting for this place."

"We'll sweep every store in the place." Carol suggested. "Take what we need, lock it all back up again. Once we're settled we could come back here if it's still abandoned; get supplies as we can carry them."

"Good idea." Rick agreed. "It's getting darker in here." He observed.

"Sundown ain't far away. Y'wanna help me find somethin' to eat in here?" This part was directed at Carol as Daryl dropped his bag on the floor against the fountain.

"Sure." She said. "Just let me get a drink first." She let go of Mika's hand to rifle through her own bag, where she'd put a few bottles of water to share around, and the girl wrapped her arms around herself.

"Are you going in there?" She pointed tremulously at the dark storefronts.

"Uh huh," Daryl confirmed. "Hopefully there's somethin' around here for dinner."

"There might be walkers." She whispered.

"Sweetheart, there aren't any walkers in here that we know about… And they're not smart enough to hide from us." Carol said as she petted her blonde mop of hair.

"Be careful, okay? It's dark."

"We will be, a'ight?" Daryl tried to appease her. "An' 'sides, Carol's got nine lives. She'll protect us."

"Yeah," Carl chimed in. "You saw her take down those walkers yesterday!" He grinned and made hand-chopping gestures. "She's like a ninja!" He teased.

Carol dusted imaginary specks off her shoulder and blew on her fingernails. "What can I say?" She teased back.

"Come on, sensei." Daryl scoffed. "Let's find us some grub."

* * *

><p>The first floor turned up a few chocolate bars from small displays and some granola squares, which, although not much of a meal, could be rationed out easily in a pinch. As they scavenged, they kept their talking to a minimum until they had completely inspected the stores for walkers. Each one was empty.<p>

"What's up with Mika?" Daryl queried as they rummaged through drawers in the office of a shoe shop. It wasn't a store they would be clearing out for its actual contents. The walls were covered in displays of sparkly high heels and strappy, entirely useless sandals, and Carol made a note to keep an eye out for a hiking store or something similar for sturdy boots.

"She's afraid of the dark." Carol answered, reaching as far as she could into the top drawer. "I can't blame her, really."

"Guess not." Daryl shrugged, triumphantly holding up a flashlight scrounged from the cabinet containing a fire-extinguisher. "You findin' much?"

"Nope." She sighed. "Maybe we should check upstairs. I can't imagine a bite of chocolate and," She wrinkled her nose. "A chunk of 'Wildberry Rush' is going to fill anyone up. This looks awful, by the way." She held up one of the granola bars for him to inspect in the gloom.

"Probably so full'a preservatives it's still good to eat." He shrugged.

The next floor was more successful. There had been a food court, and the stench of long-rotten food made Carol gag slightly. Daryl wheeled around and let the swinging door shut behind him.

"Fuck, that's rank!" He breathed deliberately through his mouth for a moment. "You still wanna go in?"

She swallowed against the smell. "No. But we could find something in there."

"A'ight, then." Daryl bounced on his toes, hyping himself up to enter, then tapped her on the shoulder and headed in.

* * *

><p>"You assholes better be hungry." Daryl announced as he and Carol descended the motionless escalator.<p>

As they reached the bottom, they dropped their bags and let the contents spill out. Jerky and packets of dried fruit were distributed amongst them all, and Daryl revealed an abundance of bottled water. There was enough that everybody drank their fill and were able to scrub up with washcloths and body wash from one of the stalls over the sinks in the restrooms.

Whilst they had been searching for food, the others had hauled dressers and wardrobes from the first-floor furniture store to barricade the doors.

"There are beds in there." Glenn gestured. "They're so soft." He sounded a little dazed.

Carol sunk to the floor to eat her dinner, next to Mika who was happy to lean up against her.

"A'ight, squirt?" Daryl grunted at her.

She nodded back, feeling infinitely safer nestled with her surrogate mother.

Once everyone was finished, it was virtually pitch-black. Daryl flicked on his flashlight and packed away the remainder of the food, before heading to the furniture store and flopping onto the nearest bed to the door with a delighted groan. The rest followed suit, picking out where they were planning to sleep and gathering a few blankets to ward off the chill.

"Can I sleep with you?" He heard Mika ask Carol. "It's so empty in here."

"Of course you can," He heard over the soft murmur of people organizing themselves. "Where are we going to go?"

"Come on." He sat up and patted the mattress next to him. "S'gonna get colder yet."

Carol lay down, her back pressing against his, and cuddled Mika closely. "Are you okay?" She whispered as Mika drifted off. He rearranged the blankets over them all.

"Yeah." He replied. "You?"

"I wish we could stay here." She admitted.

He hummed. "Probably no good for more than a year, though. Saw the building certificate before an' this place ain't had a building inspection for fifteen years… Damn near ready to come tumblin' down, give it enough time."

"There's no water nearby, either." She added. "We should find a car big enough to cram full of supplies though."

"We'll sort it tomorrow, yeah?" His voice was growing groggy.

"Guess so." She nudged him lightly in the back. "Night, Daryl."

"Night." He muttered, and quickly dropped into sleep as she pressed closer to his back, trying to absorb as much body heat as possible.

* * *

><p>In the end, they stayed for almost a week before they moved on. In that time, they'd scoured the mall top to bottom, hunting for useful items. They'd packed three cars full of food and bottled water, extra clothing and blankets. They'd emptied the pharmacy of everything they could think of, and grabbed toothpaste and hairbrushes as well.<p>

They left because the most recent scouting mission around the city, consisting of Rick, Glenn, Maggie, Abe, and Daryl, had found signs of another group about forty minutes' walk away.

They'd discussed it long into the night, but nobody was willing to lose any more people over the mall, given that they had no information about the other group except that there seemed to be thirty to forty of them.

"What's a group that size doing wandering around?" Glenn asked.

"Probably same thing we're doing." Maggie shrugged. 'Looking for someplace safe to set up. Thing is, they're big enough to defend that place and we ain't."

They were currently in a sprawling hunting and camping store. It had had half-a-dozen walkers in it, but they were feeble and easily dispatched. They had split up into small groups, each searching for different items. Daryl and Glenn were clearing out the weapons section, gathering ammunition. Rick and Carol were in the clothing section along with Maggie and Bob, grabbing anything that looked hard-wearing enough to last a long time. Sasha and Michonne were grabbing hiking boots and sturdy shoes, whilst Eugene and Rosita kept watch with Mika and Carl. Tyreese was patrolling the dark and dingy remainder of the store, clutching the rifle with their final few bullets in it.

They had been in there for half-an-hour before Tyreese came bolting back as quickly as he could whilst remaining silent.

He gripped Carol and Rick by the arms and towed them back towards the rest of the group.

"What's going on?" Carol asked, but Tyreese clapped a hard hand over her mouth.

"Another group!" He hissed. "They came in the back of the store. I think it's the same group whose camp we found. We gotta go, now."

Carol's eyes widened in fear. "Get everybody out." She breathed.

At that moment, they heard Maggie scream.

Carol drew her knuckle-duster knife and raced towards the sound of Maggie's loud sobs.

"Maggie!" Glenn hollered as he sprinted towards the darkened rear of the store. Daryl threw him a box of ammo and he loaded his gun as he ran, dropping bullets in his haste.

They arrived at the same time to see Maggie sink to the ground, facing away from them, with a pair of arms wrapped around her neck.

Glenn choked out a sob and raised his gun, preparing to kill the walker that had somehow grabbed his fully armed and capable wife. He stepped around Maggie where she lay crumpled in a death grip with the walker, lining it up in his sights. He almost squeezed the trigger when he realised that, instead of grimacing in pain as she sobbed, Maggie was smiling.

He glanced in shock at the cluster of strange men who were watching him warily. They were all armed, but they didn't look afraid of the scene before them; rather, they were eyeing Carol, Daryl and Glenn with distrust.

"Mags?" Glenn tried. "Maggie, what's happening?"

"Bethie!" She cried, burying her face into the blonde tangle of hair. "Oh my God!" She began sobbing too hard to speak, squeezing the shaking body tightly to her, still kneeling untidily on the floor in the dingy light.

"Beth?" Daryl repeated. Carol had her hands clapped over her mouth, still hanging onto her handgun, tears running down her cheeks.

Maggie finally released her from her tight embrace and cupped her pale face, wiping away the tears that left smudges on her dirty cheeks. Beth gripped her sister's wrists as she bawled helplessly and Glenn stepped towards them, dropping to his knees and catching her as she launched herself into his arms. He sniffled as he hugged her to him, letting her soak his shirt with tears. Maggie beamed, face blotchy with tears, hands shaking, and he thought she'd never looked more radiant.

The men spread out a little, shifting anxiously. Daryl raised his crossbow as they slowly encircled him and Carol, and Beth choked out in sudden fright.

"They're my family!" She stuttered through her tears. "They're okay, I swear!"

The men lowered their guns and knives, and Daryl stared them down for a moment before he let the point of his machete drop to the ground, uneasy in the presence of so many armed strangers.

Rick jogged out from between the racks of clothing, hand on his handgun, but staggered to a halt when he saw Glenn and Maggie clinging to Beth.

Silence reigned for almost a minute as everybody came to terms with Beth's sudden return, until one of the others stepped forward.

"I'm Daniel." Said the scruffy-looking man. "I'm the leader of our group."

"Rick," Rick gestured to himself. "Carol, Daryl, Glenn and Maggie."

"Who's in charge?"

"Ah, nobody." Rick looked at him, then over his shoulder to the group of ten or so men surrounding them. "We've recently been… Displaced. We don't want any trouble." His eyes kept flicking disbelievingly to Beth. "Are you okay, Beth?"

"Fine." She whispered, blinking rapidly as Glenn rocked her, pretty much seated in his lap. Maggie had scooted over to Glenn's side and seemed unable to stop petting Beth's hair. "They're good people, honest."

"Is this all of you?" Daniel asked, gesturing at them with his rifle.

"No." Carol said. "We're just trying to get some supplies, then we'll leave you alone."

"We're not established here. We're just passing through, like you. Is there a destination in mind?"

Carol glanced at Rick anxiously. "Not as yet." She reached out to Beth with one slender hand. "Beth. Come on." She beckoned. Beth rose slowly to her feet and staggered towards them, falling into Carol's arms. "Oh honey," She cooed as Beth dissolved into another round of tears. "You're okay?" Beth nodded mutely against Carol's shoulder. The tears were beginning to threaten and she discreetly wiped at her eyes with a soft laugh.

"Is there… Is there any chance we could meet the rest of your group? We're hunting for a safe place too." Daniel glanced around hesitantly. "It's just, we have women… Children… One of the women is pregnant. We're desperate." He rubbed nervously at his short beard.

"We'll have to talk to the rest of our group." Rick said, fidgeting.

"We'll wait." Daniel said. "Thank you."

Beth threw herself against Daryl's chest and he wrapped his arms around her reflexively. "Daryl!" She squeaked. "I thought you were dead!"

"Back at'cha," Daryl muttered, looking decisively teary-eyed. "Glad you're a'ight, Beth." He patted her arm awkwardly. She let him go and went to Rick, who squeezed her tightly.

"Where's everyone else?" She asked. "Are they…?" She didn't dare finish the question, but Carol raced to reassure her.

"They're okay. Don't worry."

* * *

><p>The rest of the group were ecstatic to see Beth, but they regarded her group with concern.<p>

"They want to join us." Rick muttered into Michonne's ear.

"What are you thinking?" She asked. "We gonna let them?"

"They seem like good people. Me and Daryl are going to talk to them, you should come along. Try and get a read on them."

"Can we afford to take on thirty-odd people, Rick? We're just making it."

"We can pool our resources… They've got kids with them. Pregnant women."

She sighed. "We can talk to them, I guess."

* * *

><p><strong>Time to address reviews! I like having an open discussion going about the story and I really appreciate the comments!<strong>

***Guest: Any comments on the actual story? Writing style, that sort of thing? I'm aware the plan would exist but surely you wouldn't just assume everybody was okay (especially with the amount of sick people there) and disappear on your own merry path? I feel like Rick flip-flopped towards the end of S4 part 1 between wanting to be in charge again and wanting to be completely removed from any sort of leadership as and when it suited him. I also understand that he was still recovering from Lori's death, his psychotic break, seeing Herschel killed, losing friends to walkers and the flu, believing Carl to be dead, and finding Judith's bloody carseat, though, and I do sort of understand his "Oh my god you're okay, let's get the f*ck out of here!" actions when he found Carl. **

**I am also aware what a bus looks like, but thank you for sharing some of your superior world knowledge and enlightening me just in case.**

**I am definitely of the mindset that Rick should not have left Carol, and if you consider that to be me wearing 'blinders', then sure, I guess I am. I do get that he thought he was doing the right thing, but Rick strikes me at that time as a man who is aware he is incapable of leading them but unsure of his worth as anything but a leader… By making the decision to leave Carol, he is reassuring himself that he is still able to make hard decisions. The problem is, his argument as to **_**why**_** he made that decision is hella weak and he knows it, which is why he resorts to wounding her emotionally with "Nobody will want you there when they find out what you've done." (Abridged, obviously, just in case you're also a little doubtful of my ability to remember quotes.)**

**I do like Rick as a fallible character. I think he is fascinating to observe but he is not some all-knowing perfect leader, and I think the presence of another leader threatens his perceived position in the group.**

**And I'm kind of trying to keep spoiler-free so I'm not sure what you're referencing re. the whole 'Carol was in the right place at the right time' thing.**

**Oops, I accidentally wrote an essay! (I do actually appreciate a good debate, so if you wanna send me a PM we could carry this on? That applies to anyone reading this! Send me a PM and we can talk about next season or where you think the story is going or Rick's personality flaws or whatever!)**

***Sophiacharlotte, you're freaking adorable! Your reviews make me sooo excited to write the next chapter!**

***GotHimASandwich, thanks for the review! Much appreciated :D**

**Thanks for reading, everyone! **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6! I neglected the Caryl aspect quite badly these last couple of chapters; hopefully this will satisfy the Caryl-beast! Reviews addressed at the end, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Rick, Daryl and Michonne had gone with the men back to their camp on the second floor of a parking lot. It was easily defensible, as the only access was the ramp leading up from the ground floor, but damp and cold as the concrete structure prevented much sunlight from reaching them. Most of the children had some sort of cold, and a few adults had the hacking cough that some of the prison group had developed in the leaky cell block B.<p>

The pregnant woman was fussing over a grizzly child when they arrived, and stood over her protectively, handgun drawn.

"It's okay, Sarah." Daniel said. "They're just here to talk."

The rest of Daniel's group had noticed them by now, and were hovering anxiously around the children. They didn't relax even as the rest of the men they had come back with headed for their loved ones, leaving the three strangers to stand next to Daniel.

"This is all of us." Daniel gestured. "We have supplies but this isn't a healthy place for us to stay. Winter's barely kicking in and almost everyone has some sort of cold."

"We had a virus go around at the last place." Michonne said. "Real nasty. People were bleeding out of their eyes and mouths. You seen it?"

"No." Daniel looked worried. "Does your group have it?"

"Naw," Rick cut in. "Some had it, but they recovered."

"Y'all are lookin' to join us?" Daryl squinted, looking menacing. "We ain't based anywhere, an' y'all have kids an' a pregnant woman."

"We need somewhere safe, for them." The fair-haired man replied.

The three glanced at each other. Rick nodded.

"We've got some questions." He warned. "Are you the spokesperson for all of these people?"

"I am." Daniel said solemnly. His group had returned to their previous activities, but they were hushed, continuously tossing unsure looks at them.

"How many walkers have you killed?"

* * *

><p>Carol was helping Carl re-pack Judith's diaper bag, but she was distracted. Whenever her hands weren't busy she tapped anxiously on whatever surface she could reach, and when she went to hand Carl Daryl's crossbow she faltered.<p>

"How long have they been gone?" She asked Carl.

He checked his watch. "Not long. They'll be okay; Beth said they looked after her so they must be alright people."

"You're right." Carol agreed, mostly for her own benefit. "Have you seen her yet?"

Carol nodded. "I can't believe she's okay after so long," He said. "I thought she would be dead." He cleared his throat. "Does she seem kinda… Like, weird, to you?"

"She's been through a lot, Carl." Carol said as she hoisted Judith's bag into the car. "We all have. She'll feel better now that she has Maggie back." She pushed a bit of hair back out of his eyes. He scoffed at her but let her fuss over him for a moment.

"What if that other group doesn't end up coming with us? She'll stay with us, right?"

"I hope so, sweetheart. But if they're good people like she says, I think we'd be better off travelling with them, don't you? Safety in numbers."

"Yeah." Carl nodded. "Can I ask you something?" He scuffed his boot along the carpet of the outdoors store.

"Is it serious?" She asked.

"I don't know." He shrugged. "Y'know Daryl?"

"Hmm… Nope!" She teased. "Doesn't ring a bell, sorry."

He rolled his eyes at her. "Are you and him, like, together? It's just, you're always with each other and he doesn't touch anyone as much as you, and you always cheer him up and stuff."

"Oh." Carol smiled at him. "It's not like that. He's my best friend, and I love him dearly, but we just… We're not like that."

Carl hummed at her.

"Why'd you ask?" She questioned curiously.

"You guys always danced around each other at the prison and I thought you were going to get together and I just thought, y'know, almost losing each other might've made it happen?" Carl shrugged, looking embarrassed. "Sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"No, it's okay." She answered, wrapping an arm around him as they headed over to where the rest of the group was. "It's just a little more complicated than that sometimes."

"I hope you do, Carol." He said seriously. "You make each other smile like Mom and Dad used to… You should get to be happy, you know?"

"You're sweet." She squeezed him. "Let's see what we have for lunch, huh?"

* * *

><p>Rick and Michonne returned two hours later, covered in walker gore and dripping with sweat.<p>

"What happened?" Carol panicked. "Where's Daryl?"

"Walkers!" Michonne puffed. "They followed us to the other camp and bunched up outside."

"Are we leaving now? Will they swarm us?" Maggie demanded. "What happened to Daryl?"

"He's doubling back." Rick said, catching his breath. "He's okay, just making sure none followed us here. We took them all out and ran back, nobody panic."

"What about the others?" Beth cut in. "Are they okay?"

"They're fine." Michonne said. "And they check out. They're comin' with us when we go."

Beth sighed in relief and nodded eagerly. "Most of them have some sort'a skill… Jonathan's a blacksmith, Daniel used to be a mechanic, and some of them were teachers and stuff."

"Maybe Daryl went back to check on them." Carol said, much more calmly than she felt. "I'll wait for him. You two should go scrub up." She gestured to Michonne and Rick, who were starting to shiver as their sweat-soaked clothing cooled down in the chill air. They nodded gratefully, still breathing hard, and headed for the bathroom of the stall with a few bottles of water and some washcloths.

Carol began making her way to the back entrance of the store, feeling her way through the neatly-arranged racks. She turned into the short corridor that led to the exit and slid down the wall opposite the door.

He didn't come back for the longest time. She sat, cross-legged, and jabbed at the carpeted floor with her too-blunt knife that he hadn't gotten around to showing her how to sharpen yet.

The sliver of light had stretched and faded with the sunset, and was only just distinguishable when he threw the door open.

"…Carol?" He choked. His breathing was ragged. Not just wheezing, hard puffing, but ragged like his throat was raw, like breathing was painful.

"Jesus, Daryl," She whispered as she clambered to her feet. "What the hell happened?"

He just shook his head, too breathless to speak. "Is… Are they…" He waved one limp hand in the direction of the others, coughing between fractured words.

"Everyone's fine. Rick and Michonne told us what happened."

He visibly relaxed at the mention of the other two having returned safe.

"Are you hurt?" She asked, taking the bloody and bent machete from his floppy grasp and slipping her hand inside his, noticing how it trembled with exertion. He shook his head and wiped at his face as sweat trickled down his hair and stung his eyes. "Come on," She prompted gently. "You have to keep moving, or you'll get cramp."

He allowed her to tow him back towards the others in the lighter section of the store, stumbling a little over his leaden legs and feet. Once they were back and he had caught his breath a little, he explained that he'd doubled back to check on the other group as planned. They'd been fine, but walkers had milled in the side road that led to the back entrance of the outdoors store for almost the length of the block. He'd skidded to a stop but had sent an old dustbin flying, drawing the attention of all of the walkers and he'd run, but found himself cornered in an alleyway.

Effectively, he'd fought his way through about one hundred walkers, armed only with his machete.

Abe had clapped him on the back at that, and his knees had buckled. He dropped onto the floor, almost bringing Carol down with him as he was too exhausted to realise he needed to let go of her hand. He swayed silently on his knees as everyone gaped at him, awed by his epic battle against so many walkers.

"Fuckin' gawking." He muttered, struggling to stand. Carol hauled on his bicep, helping him up. "Need'a wash up." He rasped. Once he was on his feet, Carol went for some bottles of water and clean cloths to scrub up with. He staggered towards the bathroom and she followed him, slipping into the small space behind him and shutting the door to get some more room.

He was leaning on the sink, breathing a little easier. He swallowed and winced, his head hanging with weariness, as his throat burned. She stepped behind him and rubbed his shoulder reassuringly.

"Drink some water." She suggested.

His eyes met hers in the mirror for a moment before she looked away, flustered by his gaze. The weight of the look that passed between them left her feeling oddly weightless at the sheer relief and trust in his eyes. He chugged a few mouthfuls of water and straightened up, rolling his head from side to side experimentally.

"How you were sittin' when I came back?" He croaked. "'S _exactly_ how I was sittin' before I dragged your ass outta the tombs."

"Really?" She asked, surprised.

"Uh huh." He grunted, rubbing his throat with one bloody hand.

She backed up, reaching for a washcloth, when the stark light coming in through the skylight cast the bite mark at the juncture of his neck and shoulder into sharp relief. It had been hard enough to pierce the black leather of his angel vest, but hadn't gone through the inner layer of fabric.

"_Shit._" She breathed. "Where else are you bit?"

"Wha'?" His eyes widened in panic in his reflection. "I ain't bit!" His hand flew to the exact spot where the bite lay. "I ain't." He repeated. "Am I?" He looked a little dazed.

"Where else?!" She hissed in terror.

He raised both his arms and inspected them, then cautiously felt his neck and the torso of his vest. "I ain't bit." He repeated, more calmly.

She thumped him hard between the shoulder blades, much to his surprise, with her closed fist and burst into tears.

"You _fucking _ass, Daryl!" She wailed, covering her face with both hands.

He gaped at her reflection. "Aw, shit, Carol." He turned to face her, reaching to wrap her in his arms.

"Take that disgusting jacket off before you even think about it." She growled, her voice muffled by her hands.

He rolled his eyes at her but obediently shrugged off his vest, then his army-surplus jacket that he wore underneath it. The filthy, gore-soaked garments dropped to the floor. His shirt was sweaty and clammy almost instantly in the winter air, but she shuffled into his chest and dropped her face against him. He hugged her tightly despite the screaming protest put up by his back and arm muscles and gave a shaky sigh.

"Gave me one helluva fright." He rasped, sounding like he remembered Merle did coming off a bender. "Your damn fool ass thought I'd let myself get bit?"

"I don't know…" She sniffled, rubbing her cheek against the damp material of his shirt and breathing deeply to calm herself. "Okay, let me go now. We need to get you cleaned up." She tried to back away but he held on to her for an extra moment, resting his cheek against her temple and inhaling deeply. "Daryl, come on." She prompted.

"Can't." He said, and then chuckled exhaustedly. "My muscles are all crampin' up."

She rubbed the broad expanse of his back with her hands, hard enough to dig in to the muscles, and he flinched then sighed again as they released and the warmth spread in the wake of her palms. He flexed his fingers against her back, feeling the spasms across the backs of his hands and shooting pain up his wrists from the fatigue of wielding his machete with such force that the metal bent. He slowly released her, wincing as his entire body burned.

"Okay," She said quietly. "Get that shirt off."

"I can do it." He protested without any energy.

She placed the tip of her pointer finger against his forehead and cocked an eyebrow. He stared at her in confusion until irritation overtook him and he went to bat her hand away. He raised his hand to chest height before stabbing heat radiated up his arm and across his back and chest and he swore viciously. She removed her finger, point made, and pushed him back gently until he was sitting against the hand basin.

"I've seen them, you know." She said lightly. "They're just scars."

"Don' mean they ain't ugly." He said, but made no move to stop her as she began unbuttoning his shirt. She pushed it off his shoulders and eased it right off, gently maneuvering his aching arms out of the sleeves.

The bruise where the walker had bitten him on the shoulder was so deep that individual teeth marks were discernable in the mottled blue and purple skin. She ran her fingertips as lightly as she could over it, and gently inspected the rest of his bruises that littered his torso.

With a damp washcloth, she began at his hairline and wiped the splatters of walker muck away, continuing down around his face, along his jaw, down his neck. He shut his eyes obligingly when she drew the cloth softly across his brow and could not find the energy to open them again, and so he sat, hands folded in his lap, as she worked her way along his collarbone and, after a moments hesitation, over his chest and stomach, patiently letting him jump and flinch at the unexpected touches of the cold cloth against his bruised skin.

He jumped belatedly when she shifted to his right hand, and she gently tickled her fingers up his arm, watching as he only reacted a second or so after she touched him.

"Make a fist with this hand." She instructed.

His hand seemed reluctant to close fully. He opened his eyes and watched in puzzlement as the fingers wouldn't curl past a certain point.

"I think that bite might have pinched a nerve." She told him. "It's in the right place."

He grunted. "Feels kinda numb, hurts in waves." He wriggled his fingers a little.

"It should come right by itself." She gently massaged the muscles of his forearm, moving up to his bicep slowly. Afterwards, she repeated the process of wash, test, and massage on the other arm, testing the reflexes. When she was done, she stood still for a moment, still between his knees, and placed her hands on his shoulders. She squeezed and released a few times and he shut his eyes again.

"Can you just…" He cleared his throat against the rasp in his voice. "Can we stay in here a while? Too sore to get up."

"Poor pookie," She cooed, only partly teasing. "Of course we can."

He pulled her a little closer, surprising her, and laid his head against her collarbone. She stroked his hair and let him hold her slightly too tightly.

"Wasn't sure I was gonna get out." He rasped. "There were so many of 'em."

"You did, though." She soothed. "Of course you did. You're not allowed to leave me alone, okay?"

"I ain't gonna." He sat up, looked her dead in the eye. His hands at her waist flexed a little and he gave her the tiniest shake. "But you gotta stay with me, too. Tell me shit."

"You were on that run, or I would've told you about Karen and David. I would have." She insisted, toying with his hair at the nape of his neck. "I wanted to."

"Just about slugged Rick," He admitted. "Couldn't believe you were just disappeared like that."

"I came back." She stepped closer again and he leaned into her from his perch on the low hand basin. "How about I make you a deal? You come back to me, every time." He nodded against her shoulder. "And I'll warn you next time I plan anything stupid so you can go down with me."

He snickered. "Carol?" He croaked.

"Yes?" She drew it out, stretching the word, giddy with the delight of having him safe and close, all tight hugs and warm, bare skin.

"Y'know I love you, right?" He said, so quietly she strained to hear him.

Her heart stuttered. "I do." She said carefully. "You know I love you back, right?"

"Yeah." He breathed. His breath washed warmly across the skin of her shoulder through the thin material of the shirt she was wearing and she felt tears prickling. "I do."

"Good." She said simply. "Don't ever show up with walker bites on anything even remotely near you again, or I swear I'll take it back."

"You wouldn't." He muttered.

She snorted softly. "I wouldn't." She smiled. "I'll get you something clean to wear." She released him and turned away quickly, hoping he wouldn't notice how much of a wreck the last few hours had made her.

"Are you okay?" Glenn almost pounced on her as she shut the door behind her. "I heard you yelling a while ago."

"I'm okay." She smiled sweetly. "Really. He's just beat up and I was worried about him… So I gave him a piece of my mind."

"Okay." Glenn said. "But he's okay?"

"Exhausted." She shrugged. "In for a world of hurt once his muscles really start protesting, but okay."

"We're staying here for the night. Rick and Michonne sorted it with the other group before they came back, everyone's meeting tomorrow and we're leaving from there."

"So soon?" She asked, looking up from where she was now kneeling and rifling through a bag of clean clothes for a shirt and pants for Daryl.

"The other group wants to get moving. They have, like, eight working cars and we're going to pack everything into them and go looking for somewhere to stay for a while. Out in the country or something." He shifted his weight from foot to foot. "It's going to be good, Carol. I can feel it." He left her then, most likely to find Maggie and Beth.

She smiled at his optimism. He never failed to make her feel better.

* * *

><p>She returned to the bathroom and handed Daryl his clothes. The opening door interrupted him mid-stretch as he reached up as high as he could in an effort to loosen out the kinks and aches in his sides and arms, and he let them drop and gave her a shy half-smile.<p>

"Thanks." He managed around his burning throat. "I'm gonna wash up while I got the chance." He gestured to the cloth in the basin.

"Alright." She smiled. "I'll see if I can find something for dinner before the light goes."

He nodded, fidgeting with the wash cloth.

"Are we really leaving the city tomorrow?" She asked. "Heading off into the wilderness?"

"Uh huh. Got a bunch'a cars to put our supplies in an' everythin'. They got little kids with 'em, couple of old folk. Didn't get any weird vibes off any of 'em."

"Nothing?" She queried, a little surprised.

"Nothin'," He confirmed. "'Chonne neither. Reckon they're alright."

She stepped closer to him, tapped the tiny x tattoo on his collarbone with one finger. "I guess everyone should have a good wash before we get on the road then."

He nodded.

"Are you okay?" She asked, aware of his tortured body. "Do you want a hand?"

"Damn horn-dog." He teased. "Always tryin' to get in my damn pants."

She giggled at him, and then sobered. "Does it… Does it bother you?"

"Only 'cause I can't tell if you're kiddin' or not." He said honestly, then blushed. He began twisting the cloth in his hands in embarrassment. "Go on, I got this."

She snickered at his awkwardness, a little flattered but understanding his hesitance to change the nature of their relationship. "I'll rustle up some food." She said, slipping out the door once more.

* * *

><p><strong>*GotHimASandwich: I'm flattered you were so touched by my story!<strong>

**As always, reviews are my fuel and inspiration! Hopefully my full-on bitching-out of Guest last chapter didn't put anyone off :/ I appreciate any discussion and constructive criticism, but condescension is not really necessary… I am open to anything you have to say regarding my style, management of the characters, where you would like to see this story go etc.**

**Much love to everyone reading and reviewing! (Or not reviewing, that's cool too.)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7! I'm thinking maybe one more after this, then it will link up with 'First Kiss', which is one of the earliest chronological fics in my 'The Farm' arc. Reviews responded to at the bottom! I hope you like this one!**

* * *

><p>She woke to the sound of footsteps tapping slowly across the floor near her head and flinched back against Daryl's chest. His arm rested across her waist, heavy and reassuring, but she wriggled out of his embrace, knife in hand, and tip-toed after the wraith-like figure that drifted between the racks of musty clothes. It wasn't until she brushed against a rack and made it rattle that the person whirled, katana in hand, and Carol jumped back, pressing one hand over her racing heart.<p>

"Michonne!" She whisper-yelled. "Oh, you gave me a fright…"

"Is everything okay?" The woman whispered back.

"I heard you going past… I wasn't sure who it was so I followed you." Carol shrugged. "Where are you going?"

"Up onto the roof." Michonne shrugged. "I was going to try stretch a little before we got moving, and the sun's almost coming up. You should come up with me." She suggested.

Carol was a little surprised, but nodded. "Okay. How are you, after yesterday?"

"Sore." The woman groaned as they began ascending the stairs. "So, so sore."

Carol hummed sympathetically. "You really think the other group are safe?"

"Daryl went back to check them, he would've told us if they were overrun." Michonne said, without looking back at her as they climbed.

"I mean, are they safe to travel with? Safe to have around Carl, or Mika, or Judith?"

"I think so." Michonne said, cocking her hip against the rooftop door. "They've got kids, too. A pregnant woman. An old guy."

"I trust your judgment, you know." Carol said, watching as Michonne shunted the door open. "But I feel uneasy about it."

"Fair enough." Michonne said, sighing in pleasure at the way the crisp air prickled her skin in the blue-grey light. "But I think they're just like us." She linked her fingers and stretched up high, grunting in pain as her muscles protested. "Less crampy, but otherwise the same."

Carol laughed softly. "Upper or lower back?" She asked as Michonne twisted from side to side, trying to loosen up her spine.

"Upper."

"I can fix that for you." She offered, a little hesitantly. "Your back."

"Really?" Michonne eyed her hopefully, rolling her shoulders.

"I have my degree in massage and physiotherapy." Carol said. "I'm probably rusty but it might help."

Michonne plopped down on the bench that ran at waist height around the roof, and beckoned her over. "Have at me."

Carol kneeled on the bench behind her and went to work, digging her fingers into stubborn knots and smoothing the tightness away across the other woman's shoulders and upper back.

"You okay?" Michonne asked after a while. "You spend so long looking after everyone else, but you never let anyone else look after you."

Carol was surprised. "I like looking after everybody… It makes me feel useful."

Michonne snorted. "You don't need to work yourself to death to be useful."

"I have to do _something._" Carol shrugged, although Michonne couldn't see it. "It might as well be acting like the camp mother."

"You were in that bathroom a long time last night." There was a distinct note of teasing in her voice, and Carol felt her cheeks heat up.

"I thought he was bit."

Michonne tensed against her hands. "Really?"

"Yep." Carol said gravely. "A walker bit right through the leather on his vest, up here." She tapped on Michonne's shoulder.

"Jesus." Michonne murmured. "That would've spooked you."

"It did." Carol said, and dug her fingertips sharply into a large knot near Michonne's shoulder blade. Michonne grunted at the pain then groaned as the muscle released.

"God," She sighed. "You have magic hands. Never hesitate to do this ever again."

Carol laughed softly. "Just don't go telling everyone. I won't have time to do anything but fix everyone's aches and pains if you do."

"You already do." Michonne shrugged and turned so she was sitting properly on the bench. "Just because it's not physical doesn't mean you're not taking on everyone else's pain."

"I don't…" She stammered. "It's just how I-"

"Atone?" Michonne cut her off with the word, although her tone was carefully neutral. "You take everyone's problems on because you're trying to make up for something?"

"Maybe I do!" Carol snapped, her good mood finally giving way. "But if that's all I can do then I'll damn well do it!"

"You don't have anything to atone for." Michonne said simply, watching her with inscrutable eyes.

"Karen and David?" Carol spat, her voice rising a little. "I killed them. Stabbed them and dragged them outside and set them on fire. I almost let Tyreese and Rick kill each other over it!"

"You had to do it. That wasn't cold-hearted, it was a kindness." Michonne offered evenly.

"I let Mika get stabbed by her sister because I just left them by themselves. She tried to kill her. I _knew _she wasn't well and I didn't bother keeping an eye on them!"

"That wasn't your fault." Although she hadn't been there, Tyreese had told her of the events leading up to the angry purple scar across Mika's belly.

"How the hell would you know?" Carol snarled. "I shot her in the head!" She crumpled in on herself, and Michonne shifted over to her, hugging her tightly against her chest. "She was screaming for me and I looked her in the eye and shot her." She whispered against Michonne's collarbone.

Michonne rubbed her back and let her cry herself out as the sun rose and stained the sky blood-red.

* * *

><p>"Carol!" Daryl called sharply across the parking lot.<p>

She jerked in surprise as his voice permeated her fuzzy brain on the third try. "Sorry…" She yawned. "What was that?"

"You ridin' with me?" He asked as he limped over to where she was packing the combined group's supplies.

"I am… There's room for Mika?"

"Uh huh." He grunted. "They want that pregnant lady and her husband in with us too."

Carol groaned. She had been looking forward to some quiet time with her little family after her emotional morning. "What on Earth for?"

"Guess it's a safeguard thing." He muttered. "Mix us all up, ain't nobody goin' to try anythin'."

"Probably." She said, reaching out to rub his arm. He shifted closer, eyes flicking around to check if anyone was watching. Everyone was preoccupied, and so he sidled up to her and leaned on her a little, letting his head tilt to rest against hers for a moment. "How long 'til we leave?" She asked lightly.

"Soon as the pregnant lady gets her shit together." Daryl groused.

Carol huffed out a laugh. "Alright, Grumpy. We taking the pickup?"

He nodded and nudged her gently. "Where'd y'go this mornin'? Weren't there when I woke up."

"I went up onto the roof." She shrugged, giving her cheeky sideways look.

He snickered. "'Course y'fuckin' did." He nudged her again. "Dunno what I expected."

"Michonne was headed up there. We watched the sun come up, talked for a bit. It was nice."

"You seem a lil'… drained or somethin' this mornin'." He said carefully. "Somethin' happen?"

"We talked." Carol edged tighter against him as the cold wind came whistling through. He eased an arm over her shoulders, hissing as yesterday's aches and pains returned in force. "About some tough things. It felt good to get some of it off my chest, to be honest."

"'M sorry." He said. "Y'deal with all my bullshit an' I don' think I ever asked if you were alright."

"It's not 'bullshit', Daryl." She wrapped her arm around his waist and gave him a squeeze. "You needed me so I was there for you." She leaned her head on his shoulder and snuggled against his side as the sound of voices filtered up from the ground floor of the parking lot.

"What," He squeezed her back. "That mean you don't need me like I need you?"

"You've taken my pain on before today," She reminded him. "At the farm."

"Couldn't'a done anythin' else." He said quietly.

"Well, neither could I." She squeezed his free hand with the one she had resting at his waist. "You're my best friend, Daryl."

He sighed, hugged her against his side even more. The hand that was slung over her shoulder came up and brushed her jaw lightly, and she turned into him, wrapping her other arm around him and turning their pose into a hug.

"You feel better now, right?" He mumbled against her hair.

"I do now." She rubbed her cheek against the denim of his jacket and reveled in the feel of his arms around her.

Her hair was soft and ticklish against his lips and cheek as she leaned into his chest. Hot bursts of pain flashed through his chest and torso as she pressed against the day-old bruises, but he kept his arms around her waist and breathed her in.

"Y'wanna go steal some coffee?" He whispered.

"We have coffee?" She whispered back, but it came out muffled against his collarbone.

"'S'hot, too. Reckon I can swipe us a cup 'fore we go, we could drink it up on the roof."

"You're going to steal coffee from the rest of the group?" She played along, pulling back slightly and grinning up at him.

"Hell yeah I am." He grinned back.

* * *

><p>They didn't get time to take their clandestine coffees up to the roof by the time everybody was ready, but they managed to gulp them down in the moments between rushing around organizing everyone without getting caught.<p>

Eventually, everyone was standing around the cars they would be travelling in, except for Carl and Mika, who were standing uneasily away from the pregnant woman and her husband, who were waiting next to the pickup.

Daryl slapped Carl lightly on the back and beckoned him over as he headed for the truck. Carl shuffled after him, dragging his feet. Mika followed, nervously glancing at Carol for reassurance as she neared the strangers.

"I'm Sarah." The woman said, extending one hand to shake. "This is my husband, Andrew.

"Daryl." Daryl said, shaking first her hand, then her husband's. "Carl, and Mika." He nodded at them in turn.

"And your wife?" Andrew asked. "She's travelling with you? Us, I mean."

Daryl stuttered. "I ain't got a wife. Who d'you mean?" He flailed a little.

"Yeah, Daryl." Carl grinned. "Where's Carol?" Mika giggled at Carl's daring.

He fixed them with a look. "Carol's up checkin' that you little bastards haven't left any'a your shit behind."

Carl continued to snicker.

"I'm sorry, I should've asked." Andrew apologized. "I just assumed that you two were married… You seem close."

"They are!" Mika piped up, less wary of the strangers now. "It's _so _sweet…" She batted her eyelashes at Daryl as he growled at them.

"Leave your dad alone…" Sarah giggled at Mika's 'who, me?' face.

"He's not my dad." She said quickly.

"Oh." Sarah's face fell. Just then, Carol came bustling back with a bag slung over her shoulder, looking a little anxious but excited to be on the move.

"I'm Carol." She said, stopping next to Daryl and cocking her hip to counter-balance the weight of the bag. Without thinking, he took the bag from her shoulder and let it dangle from his hand, freeing her from its considerable strain.

Carl smirked at him and Daryl bumped him none too gently with his elbow in retaliation.

"Are we good to go?" Carol rocked a little on her feet as introductions were made, almost bouncing with pent-up energy.

"Who's driving?" Andrew asked.

"I am." Carol said, and went around to the driver's seat. Mika clambered into her spot in the middle of the front seat, and after a moment, Daryl gestured Sarah into the front passenger seat. He wasn't comfortable having the two strangers and Carl sitting behind them, where they could attack them if they were so inclined. He went around the other side so he was sitting behind Carol and Carl shuffled across into the middle seat.

He hadn't thought of how Carl might feel packed next to the strange man, but he realised his error when the boy flinched away and shuffled closer to him, cringing away from the close proximity.

Carol's eyes flicked to them in the rear-view mirror, but he shook his head slightly and she gave him a small smile, starting the engine and pulling out after Glenn and Maggie in another pickup, loaded with supplies and some other members of the new group.

* * *

><p>The sunlight was weak and provided little warmth, but it wasn't too uncomfortable travelling throughout the day. Carol chatted lightly with Sarah about all manner of things, and Daryl stared absently out the window, watching for signs of other people or walkers that could cause them problems. Carl stayed crammed up against him, leaving a small gap between himself and Andrew. Abe pulled the Army truck over up ahead around midday and the rest of their convoy followed suit.<p>

Andrew opened his door to leave the vehicle, but Carol stopped him.

"Stay in the car." She instructed. "Until we hear why we've stopped."

"Do you think something's happened?" He asked, sounding alarmed.

"I'm not sure," She said, craning her head to try and see what was going on up ahead. "But just sit tight for a minute."

They sat and waited for almost a minute before Abe came striding around the front of Glenn's pickup and opened Carol's door for her.

"Bathroom break." He announced, nodding amicably to Sarah and Andrew as they eyed him warily. "No walkers to see but make it quick."

They piled out of the car and took turns keeping watch while they relieved themselves and scrubbed their hands with the large bottles of hand sanitizer they had uplifted from the mall.

"You a'ight?" Daryl clapped Carl on the shoulder as they trudged through the woods back to the road.

Carl nodded mutely.

"Sure?" Daryl prompted after a beat.

"Cramped in there." Carl muttered and scuffed his boot in the leaves on the forest floor.

Daryl felt a sick burn starting somewhere between his stomach and his heart as he studied the anxious teenager before him, head bowed under his father's sheriff's hat. "Carl." He said, sharper than he meant to. "Are y'sure? Can swap seats, if you want."

"Can we?" Carl asked. "It makes me feel kinda sick." He muttered as he looked away again.

"Lucky I ain't inclined to be an asshole 'bout your lil' stunt this mornin'." Daryl said gruffly, to conceal his concern for Carl's introverted mood.

"Sorry." Carl said honestly. "It was kinda funny, though… Michonne thought you were together when she first saw you guys, too."

Daryl groaned. "Ain't that simple."

"That's what Carol said." Carl supplied, side-stepping Daryl's half-hearted swipe. He snickered and looked back at Daryl seriously. "I'm not scared." He said. "I'm not."

"I know." Daryl shrugged. "It's all good."

* * *

><p>Winter had set in with full force by the time they found somewhere to set up until Sarah gave birth. The barn was on a farm somewhere out in the boondocks and it was damp, and the wind whistled through gaps in the walls, but it was sheltered from the early morning frosts that had plagued them in the cars.<p>

They were sleeping around the loft space in case any walkers somehow got in during the night, because they'd had to set up a ladder to reach the hay-filled space, and the walkers wouldn't know how to climb up. It was difficult for the adults, especially the heavily pregnant Sarah, to climb up with aching limbs from the long hours of travel, but the children had scrambled up without struggling, and had made comfortable nests in the hay by the time the cars were all parked in the usual formation.

By some miracle, the two groups had melded almost seamlessly together in the three weeks they'd been on the road. Carl and Mika still stuck together for the most part, but the other children, most of whom were eight or nine years old, were friendly after the expected standoffishness that went with the territory nowadays.

It made Daryl snicker that first night, when Carl and Mika were curled up in a small mountain of hay with a tiny flashlight between them, reading one of the comics Michonne had swiped for them, and they turned to look at each other at the same moment, bumping noses. Carl turned bright red and Mika went all giggly.

He jostled Carol from where she was dozing in his arms, half-leaning across his chest. "Lookit that." He whispered. She hummed softly for more information so he flicked one finger in their direction.

"Oh! God, that is _cute._" Carol breathed. "I wish I had a camera." She patted his stomach where her hand lay. They were sitting almost upright, with a pile of hay acting as a cushion beneath them and propping them up against the wall of the loft. It was the typical position for sleeping in, with hay around them to provide a little extra warmth, and it gave everyone a clear view of most of the others.

Daryl figured he should probably be enforcing some sort of 'arm's length' rule by this point, but Carol was right; it was pretty damn cute. They sat and watched as Carl fidgeted and Mika blushed and eventually they sidled closer to each other and continued reading, casting shy little looks at each other when they weren't going to be caught. "Little bastards better keep it at that," He grumbled half-heartedly. "Ain't runnin' 'round keepin' an eye on them."

She giggled and shifted a little closer, pulling the blankets tighter. "I don't think they're _that _invested just yet." She shifted and he let her arrange his arms around her as she liked.

"Comfy?" He asked.

She groaned a little and rubbed her cheek against his chest, pulling the blankets up around her ears. "Send those two to bed." She mumbled, her voice muffled by the blanket. "It's getting late."

He looked around and saw that most everyone was settling down, and nobody had thought to turn off the lantern that glowed in the middle of the space. He considered getting up to turn it off, but Carol was toying sleepily with a button on his shirt beneath the blankets and she felt so good sitting almost on top of him that he stayed where he was.

"Mika," He called as quietly as he could. "Bed."

She looked at him, big blue eyes ready to plead for a few more minutes.

"Go on," He cut her off gently. "S'getting' cold an' you're gonna hurt your eyes with that lil' torch."

She looked at Carl.

"Both of you." He insisted. "Get your skinny lil' asses into bed before I come get you."

They snickered, knowing he wouldn't bother disrupting Carol's sleep to follow through on his threat. What they didn't realise was that Carol wasn't asleep, and he could feel the little vibrations of her squashed giggles as he held his one-sided argument with the kids.

"Get." He jerked his head, and the pair sighed heavily in unison and went their separate ways. Carl settled down next to Michonne, who was sleeping with Judith lying on her chest while Rick took watch. Mika shuffled over to where Beth was sitting, wide awake, and staring out of the open space where hay used to be dropped down onto a trailer. She knelt down beside the older blonde girl and wrapped an extra blanket over her thin shoulders. Daryl figured she'd go to sleep when she was tired enough, and he was quietly relieved that someone was taking extra care of Beth.

Carol's cool fingers slipped inside his shirt just above his belly button and he jerked a little.

"You're good with them." She whispered, lifting her head out from under the blankets. "Mika needs someone to be her Daddy."

He choked a little. "No she don't. Her Daddy ain't long dead an' ain't nobody lookin' to replace him." He returned, pulling one hand out and playing with a lock of hair at the base of her neck.

"You're good at it, though." She countered lightly. "I just meant you look after her like she's your own."

"She's yours." He rumbled back. "Close enough, ain't it?"

"When you put it like that, I guess so." She arched her neck against his fingers, encouraging him to dig his fingertips into the tense muscles there. "That feels good." She murmured, curling her fingers against the warm skin of his stomach, kneading him like a cat. He gave her a gentle one-handed neck rub for a while until she melted against him again, sighing in contentment.

He cast a careful eye around, noting Judith still safely sprawled on top of Michonne and Mika curled up next to Beth, sound asleep. Convinced that all was well, he dropped his cheek to the top of Carol's head and dozed off to sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>*Melniewn: Thanks for reviewing! I hope this little bit of group-interaction is what you were after!<strong>

***Tinkerbell99: Just because you can't doesn't stop Carol :P**

***Pol: This is exactly the sort of review that makes me smile! I'm glad you got some feels from this story, and I'm very flattered by your review **

***Sophiacharlotte (who was too lazy to log in :P): "Write for the show!" That was my favourite review for the last chapter… I love that my story made you feel better, hopefully it was just a mildly bad day and not a terrible one! **

***everfaraway: Heck yes he is! Heh, not that we need him to be a badass now that we have Queen Carol back!**

***Shewolf226: Aaahhhh! MY feels are exploding! Enthusiastic reviews like that are just pure happiness for me **** I'll see what I can make him do, although he really has a mind of his own at this point!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Here's the final chapter! After this, it will line up with the events of 'First Kiss' and the rest of my 'The Farm' arc... I think 'First Kiss' is set about six months after this, but if you want the Caryl kisses to happen a bit quicker feel free to change the time frame :P**

**I really appreciate you all taking the time to read and review! It's been much more fun than I thought it would be :)**

* * *

><p>Sarah's baby was nine months old by the time they found the farm.<p>

Nine months of skipping from house to house, suffering through a bitter winter and scorching summer. Nine months of snapping and snarling at each other, and curling up together for comfort or warmth.

It was dumb luck, really, that they found it at all. They'd been following their progress on their maps and Daniel and Rick had figured that they were as far away from any major cities as they were going to get, but none of them would have thought to turn down the overgrown gravel road that led to the farm.

Maggie and Glenn were travelling with Daryl and Carol in the pickup, when Maggie squawked in alarm.

"Stop!" She managed and Daryl swerved sharply onto the stalky grass on the side of the road. Within moments, she was hunched over, vomiting weakly on the side of the road. Carol stepped around the nose of the car and stood beside her, rubbing her back soothingly as Glenn and Daryl stood by, keeping watch over them.

"This is _so _gross." Maggie whined as she rinsed her mouth.

"I know, sweetie." Carol soothed. "Walk it off for a while."

Maggie shuffled around the car a few times whilst the others pulled to a stop and everyone piled out. They hadn't seen a single walker in almost ten days, but a few people paced with their hands on their weapons on the off chance one would appear. Mika dropped down out of the army truck she'd been in with Carl and two of the other children and headed for Carol.

"Are we stopping for lunch?" She asked. Maggie groaned and covered her mouth.

"Don't talk about f-o-o-d." Carol whispered. "But if everyone thinks we should, I'll start getting it ready."

Daryl gave her a thumbs-up and she began digging out fruit leather and dried venison, along with bottles of water.

"I ain't eatin'," Maggie said. "I'm gonna walk a ways."

"I'll come." Carl volunteered, and Mika hesitated before agreeing.

"Don't go too far." Carol warned before they left.

* * *

><p>They sat in the shade of Abe's Army truck as they ate. Daryl settled close enough that their legs and shoulders were pressed together and offered her his water bottle. She drank gratefully and squeezed his knee in silence while she chewed on a slice of meat and he leaned on her a little.<p>

"Carol," Rick said. "Where did Carl go?"

"He went to keep an eye on Maggie. 'Morning' sickness." She replied, making quote marks with her fingers.

"She doesn't want to talk to me right now." Glenn quipped ruefully.

Just then, the absent trio returned, a little sweaty under the hot sun. Maggie looked brighter, and reached for some dried fruit with a smile.

"There's a dirt road that way." Carl pointed. "It might lead to a farmhouse or something we can stay in."

"We'll check it out after lunch." Rick replied. "Good spotting." Judith called his name and made grabby hands at Carl as he sat near them. Rick let her off his lap and she toddled over to him, helping herself to his fruit leather. Carl gave her a smaller piece so she wouldn't choke on it and she munched happily, standing next to him.

Their group was twenty strong. It had, at the start, been forty-five people, but they'd lost four at the third house they'd stayed in, and most of the other group had split off after four months, deciding instead to return to the small town most of them came from. Sarah, who had been almost ready to give birth at the time, had opted to stay with the travelling group, as did her husband Andrew and Daniel, with his own wife.

"It goes for a while." Maggie said. "It looks like there used to be a farm or something there."

"I'm finished," Abe announced, climbing down from the truck where he'd taken his lunch to keep watch. "I can go take a look, stretch my legs. I'm tired of bein' a sardine in a can." That earned a round of chuckles.

Carol and Daryl went with him, Bob tailing behind with Sasha, holding hands and bumping each other playfully, playing their 'Bad and Good' game as they walked. There was a padlocked gate in their path and Daryl hesitated, even as Abe climbed over without a second thought.

"What if there's already folks here?" He questioned. Carol stopped at the gate and squeezed his hand that was resting on the top bar.

"We'll introduce ourselves and apologise for intruding." She said simply, then began to climb over. He grabbed her sleeve and hoisted himself onto the gate, straddling it carefully by standing on the bars, and offered her a hand. She took it and allowed him to help her over, kissing him on the cheek quickly as she dropped down. He blushed and tried to scowl at Abe, who chuckled at her antics. "Come on, Pookie."

He rolled his eyes but followed her, letting Bob and Sasha clamber over and catch them up. They walked for almost ten minutes before Abe threw up a hand to stop them, and waved it around in a seemingly random pattern.

Carol made a baffled face and pressed close to Daryl, whispering lowly in his ear so not to attract any attention from potential inhabitants, ducking behind a large bush.

"What did he say?"

Daryl turned to her to whisper back, bumping her nose with his cheek. "At least five buildings, no signs'a life."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't know how you got that from _that_." She flailed her hands in imitation of Abe's signals.

"We're gonna go check it out." He breathed.

They crept around to the rear of the cluster of houses to find three barns in a horseshoe shape, perfectly still and silent. The courtyard between the barns sported a pump and looked out on some fields towards the rear of the property, where, somehow, a small herd of cattle grazed, unscathed by any walker attacks. They approached the nearest barn and Sasha pounded the wide door. There was no sound except for the lowing of a cow in the background. She hauled on the door but it barely budged until Bob and Abe took over, throwing their bulk back and sliding the door across. It was empty but quite well lit, with eight stalls on each side of the corridor. After sweeping for walkers, they found the other two barns to be similar, with feed rooms and tack storage, and a large, well-ventilated loft filled with sweet-smelling but faded hay, at least three summers old.

"This is perfect." Carol said, hands on her hips in the middle of the courtyard. "At least for a while, don't you think?"

Daryl grunted in agreement as he tried the pump. A thin stream of water trickled out and he caught it in his cupped palms, carefully smelling it to check if it was clean. "Must be a well somewhere. Water smells alright but it prob'ly needs boilin' still."

"We gonna do this?" Abe boomed across the courtyard. He'd been sweeping the houses whilst the other four were exploring the barns. "Ain't anybody been in those houses for a long while; there's dust on everything. Floor's covered in the stuff, nothin's been moved around. Place looks abandoned."

"Let's go get the others, then!" Sasha beamed.

She and Bob set off back up the very long driveway. Daryl and Carol followed on, with Abe bringing up the rear. Carol stepped closer to Daryl so that their hands brushed every other step. They walked in comfortable silence, listening to the birds that twittered around them and the gravel crunch under their feet.

"What'cha think 'bout the farm?" He murmured to her.

She tilted her head a little. "It's got plenty of buildings," She mused. "It's far away from any walkers, a water pump."

"Y'reckon it could be permanent?" He asked after a while.

She stopped, looking surprised. "Maybe." She said, a slow smile inching across her face. "We could!" She enthused. "Daryl, we could _live _here."

"S'what I asked." He teased. She stepped up under his arm and wrapped her arm around his waist. He threw his arm over her shoulders and squeezed before they carried on.

Abe grinned jauntily when Daryl kept his arm over her shoulders as they walked. As if he could feel Abe's laughing eyes on his back, the hand resting against Carol's arm lifted and flipped him off. Abe laughed loudly.

* * *

><p>They all slept in the big house that night. It had four bedrooms, a well-organised study, a large bathroom and a fairly well-stocked pantry. They'd explored the other houses as a group and checked the grounds that afternoon after parking their cars in the courtyard between the barns, and found that a short walk through the fields yielded four slightly feral horses and, just past that, an overgrown but fruitful apple orchard.<p>

Mika was sleeping, curled up like a cat in the armchair. Sarah and Daniel were sleeping on the bed, with the baby in the portable crib they carried with them next to the headboard. Carol and Daryl were lying on the floor on a foam mattress near the door, both awake. At some point she had rolled closer and he had lifted his arm obligingly to let her back up to him, despite the warmth of the late-summer night air.

They lay in the dark, listening to the breathing of the four other bodies in the room. Every time the baby squeaked or whimpered in her sleep, he felt Carol roll slightly in the direction of the crib, almost getting up to see to her but catching herself every time.

"Hey," He breathed, quietly enough that if she'd actually dozed off she wouldn't wake at his voice. "You awake?"

She shivered and smiled at his breath tickling the back of her ear and cheek. "Nope." She breathed back. He nudged the back of her knee with his own in retaliation.

"Wanna head outside?"

She rolled back against him a little, looking at him. "Yeah." She wriggled out from under his arm and quietly got to her feet while he did the same. Mika woke slightly at the movement and whispered in the blackness.

"What's happening?"

"Nothing, sweetheart." Carol soothed. "We're just heading outside for a while."

"Go back to sleep. 'S'alright." Daryl added, barely whispering so not to wake the sleeping couple or their little girl.

"Okay." Mika whispered sleepily and they heard her shift around, getting comfortable.

They tip-toed carefully down the hallway and slipped out the door. It creaked loudly but Bob just nodded to them as they paused to pull their boots on and stepped down off the porch, heading around the side of the house to the courtyard.

"Come on." Daryl mumbled, jumping up into the bed of the pickup. He reached down for her hand and pulled her up after him, keeping her hand in his as he climbed on top of the cab. She tucked up beside him, the heels of her boots next to his on the windshield.

"Can't sleep?" She asked as he pulled her hand onto his lap, fingers still linked.

"Naw." He answered, rubbing the backs of her fingers with his thumb. "You okay?"

"Gotta be." She shrugged, and he felt rather than saw the rise and fall of her shoulder against his arm in the dim starlight.

"We ain't doin' this shit again." He said, flexing his fingers around hers. She huffed and he huffed back, making her laugh quietly.

"I don't feel good." She admitted.

He waited, but she didn't elaborate. "You sick?" He asked, side-eyeing her.

"Not sick… Just, I feel bad. Sad." She leaned against him suddenly, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder. He let her hand go and put his arm around her, taking her limp fingers in his other hand.

"Guilty?" He hazarded.

She nodded, still resting her cheek on him.

"'Bout…?" He prompted. She looked up at him disbelievingly.

"Like I have to explain." She said, devoid of emotion.

"Don't." He growled. "Y'did what you had to. Ain't no way it could'a gone differently."

"I killed a child." She whispered hollowly. "I think about her all the time."

"You put her outta her misery." He argued. "Ain't the same thing."

"We've talked all this over," She reminded him. "You know how I feel about it."

"Yeah." He sighed. He rubbed her arm and rocked her slightly while she sniffled. "Been a rough day, huh?" It hadn't, as far as he knew, but only on long, exhausting, or tragedy-riddled days would she succumb to tears and torture herself like this.

"No!" She wailed softly. "It's been a fantastic day!" She half-laughed, half-sobbed. "I just… I just feel _bad._" She grumped in embarrassment, feeling foolish.

"Aw," He sympathised. Once she'd pulled herself together, he patted her thigh. "C'mere." He shifted back, making a space for her in front of him. She made a playful face.

"Is this going where I think it's going?"

He chuckled and wiped her cheek dry of the tear that had escaped with the rough pad of his thumb. "Depends where you think it's goin'." He teased.

"I like the sound of this." She quipped. He snorted at her.

"Hurry your ass up, y'jerk." He patted the space between his thighs.

She climbed over his nearest leg and settled into the gap. He pressed his thumbs into the muscle either side of her spine, his fingertips resting on her hips. "Here?" He murmured.

She'd wrenched her back twisting out the window of the pickup to stab a walker that had Mika cornered on the back without her weapon. The walker had crumpled to the ground and a split second later she'd gasped out a foul word and scrambled to find a position that didn't almost paralyze her with pain. The dozen walkers had appeared out of nowhere and the one after Mika was the last one to be dispatched. She knew what she'd done to her back once the pain had faded, and could usually cajole someone into rubbing her muscles. She would guide them through the process to realign her spine but it wasn't quite healed two months later, and he'd caught the momentary tightening of her lips when she climbed up onto the truck.

"A little higher." She breathed back. He shifted his thumbs until she muttered "There." and set about massaging the tight muscles. She shifted after a while and he inched higher, starting on the next region of tension. They sat in silence, the only noise their breathing and the rustle of fabric as his thumbs rubbed against her shirt.

He ran his fingers firmly down the entire length of her spine, feeling for any knots or sore spots he could have missed.

"Where did you learn _that?_" She sighed, shifting back so she was leaning against his chest. He didn't have anywhere to put his arms except around her waist, and he shifted her slightly so he was comfortable. In her post-massage state, she let him arrange her like he so often allowed her to do.

"From lettin' you con me into givin' you back-rubs all the damn time." He smiled a little as she petted his arm.

"Thank you, Daryl. It really helps." She offered.

"You're my best friend." He echoed her sentiments. She chuckled low in her chest.

"You remember that?"

"Yeah. Kept me smilin' on the road." He admitted, nuzzling her hair a little, his fingertips brushing the hem of her shirt.

"Daryl?" She whispered hesitantly.

"Sorry." He cleared his throat and pulled away, ceasing the nuzzling.

"I wasn't going to say 'stop'," She said quickly. "Just… I like what we have, I do. Come on," she prompted. "Come back." His arms tightened back around her and she snuggled back against him. "Don't ever think I don't want this." She ran her fingers over his forearm. "Don't pull away, okay? You're not going to scare me off."

He sighed. His scruff rasped against the back of her neck for a moment, surprising her, but she stayed still despite the tickle. His lips pressed tentatively to the side of her throat.

She smiled. "Not so hard, right?"

He huffed against the join of her neck and shoulder but didn't comment. She could feel his heart thrumming against her upper back and she patted his leg softly.

"Love you." He rumbled.

"I love you too." She smiled up at the stars. "Even if you do take your time with things."

He pilled away from her, scooting backwards and turning to drop to the ground. He opened the cab door and rummaged for a moment, coming up with a blanket. He shook it out and laid it in the back of the pickup.

"Ooh," She cooed. "This is getting pretty romantic…"

He scoffed at her. She swiveled to watch him climb back onto the truck. "Can't sleep in there when I got the option to not. Too many people."

"I know. It's a little weird, having all this space. Good weird, mind you."

He sprawled out on the blanket on his back. "Reckon you're gonna sleep tonight?"

She pursed her lips and he groaned, recognizing her 'raging flirt' face instantly. "I dunno," She said lightly, trying not to giggle. "You tell me."

"Get down here." He scolded, flustered but grinning.

"Bow chicka wow wow…" She sing-songed and he threw his arm over his face in embarrassment.

"You lil' shit." He laughed as she lay down next to him, also on her back. "Dunno what to do with you sometimes."

"I have a few hints." She quipped.

"Stahp." He protested.

She cackled, her desired result finally achieved. "Do you really think we could do this? Live here?" She asked after a pause.

"We've been lookin' at a few places before today." He said. "This place seems best set up. Plenty of room, river runs right by… Could plant some crops, build a fence or somethin'."

"It's a safe place, you know? For the kids, Maggie and Glenn's baby? I hope we stay." She confided, stargazing. He glanced over at her, bathed in silver light and heavy shadows.

"Yeah." He cleared his throat. "Me too."

* * *

><p><strong>Review time!<strong>

**Sophiacharlotte: Giving you feels gives me feels! If you're hanging out for that Caryl kiss, it's part of the arc! Go on, ya little cutie! Go check it out!**

**jazmine: I guess that's really the point of fanfiction! We get what we want rather than what's actually happening on the show and it's just for fun! Thank you for reviewing, I really appreciate it!**

**everfaraway: Daddy!Daryl is a favourite of mine, I'm glad you like him too!**

**Shewolf226: Carl and Mika ganging up on Daryl was probably my favourite part of that chapter, not gonna lie... The fact that he just let them do it says a lot about his character development (I could imagine Carl taking the mickey out of him on the show and Daryl just putting up with it, as well.)**

**ForgotMyPassword: Aaahh! *flails* Thanks for saying so! I think people would instantly assume that the group was at least distantly related judging by their interactions... But I guess you couldn't go through so much together and _not_ feel like a family. I appreciate you taking the time to R&R! I hope you enjoyed this last chapter :D**


End file.
